


Echoes In The Forest

by neld13



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: F/M, Friends With Benefits, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:55:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26723254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neld13/pseuds/neld13
Summary: None of Unit Bravo know what to expect when they're sent overseas for a mission.Surprises await them in the Black Forest, but perhaps Adam stands to find out more about himself than he's ever bargained for.
Relationships: Female Detective/Adam, Female Detective/Mason
Comments: 141
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First thing's first, I want to give a massive shout out to Alicia, Esme, Becky and Jade for not only getting me hooked on TWC, but also for their amazing support and encouragement. All the idea bouncing, the proof reading, the reassurances and the help regarding the plot and the title, not to mention putting up with me for the last week; I seriously couldn't have done it without any of you, thank you so much.
> 
> ** Smut in this chapter, 18+ only.

Jordan huffs out the tiniest of what could only be described as a sigh of relief as she steps into her office and finds Unit Bravo waiting for her. It's common for her to go without seeing them for a few weeks, sometimes a little over a month at a time, but the closer she gets to them, the stronger the pull she feels towards them is and the harder it is to go day by day without seeing them.

They've grown on her as much as she's grown on them.

Adam stands by the window, hands clasped behind his back, staring outside as though he's on sentry duty. In his mind, he probably is. Always alert, always waiting for something to happen, forever taking the old boy scout saying 'always be prepared' to an entirely new level. His aviators hang from the front of his pea coat, allowing her to notice when his eyes flit towards the door for a split second as she enters the room. He comes across as an arrogant jerk and doesn't seem to care, but she's had a few _almost_ human moments with him that lead her to believe that there's much more to him than she's been privy to so far.

Felix sits in one of the chairs in front of her desk, one leg hanging over the arm and so slouched that perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he's _laying_ in the chair, rather than sitting. His hat sits crookedly on his head and he pauses the erratic drumming of his hands on his thighs to turn his head and grin at her. The nervous energy being expelled through his drumming tells her straight away that someone - most likely Adam - has just reprimanded him and asked him to sit still; something that she knows he doesn't excel at.

She feels Mason's eyes on her before she even looks over at him. She tries to fight away the irritated expression she feels creeping across her face when she sees him leaning against her filing cabinet and taking a drag of his cigarette; _despite_ the numerous times she's asked him not to smoke in her office. Apparently she's unsuccessful though, and he smirks at her obvious annoyance before blowing the smoke out of his mouth in her direction. She considers telling him again but she knows it's a waste of time, so she just shakes her head to herself and continues on to sit at her desk. She's still not sure how she feels about Mason. She knows that she trusts him as much as the rest of them, and she knows that he's shown what could be taken for slight affection for her, however rarely. She also knows that other than having to work with her as part of Unit Bravo, his personal interest in her doesn't stretch any further than the bedroom. She knows it should bother her; she's never been able to manage that kind of disconnected relationship before, but perhaps with him it's made easier by the fact that 90% of the time, he's the biggest tool she's met in her life.

Nate is perched in the chair beside Felix, watching him with a slight glint of amusement in his eyes, poised and calming and approachable as ever. Jordan can remember being almost afraid of Nate when she first met him, she couldn't remember ever meeting someone as _big_ as him, and standing at only 5'5 herself it had been intimidating to say the least. There are times now though when Nate is the only member of Unit Bravo she can bear to be around. Moments with Adam often become awkward and time with Felix is either like hanging out with a frat boy jonesing to do some keg stands or a hyperactive child, and both versions could be exhausting when she's running on empty. She's come to love them all, but Nate is often her safe place. He can calm her when the others wind her up, he can talk her down when Mason's jackass behaviour has her ready to mow him down with her car (even if the likelihood of him doing more damage to her car than the car would do to him is high), and he always seems to know what to say to make her slow down and take stock of her own thoughts.

“It’s good to see you again, Detective!”

Felix greets her loudly as she takes a seat at her desk, and they grin at each other for a moment before he snaps his head around towards Adam.

“Isn’t it good to see our Detective again, Adam?”

Adam slowly turns his attention towards him, eyeing him with a slight frown on his face before looking at Jordan and giving her a nod. She thinks she can see him almost smile, but it’s as fleeting as the sunlight peeking through holes in the grey clouds outside the window behind him, and she’s not sure if she might have imagined it. She’s never sure with Adam. They’ve had a few moments, she’s sure of that much. But they always pass so quickly that she’s often left wondering if they even happened. It surely doesn’t seem so, from the way Adam still acts around her.

“It is good to see you again, Detective Mills.”

She stares at him, his rare admission of feeling anything at all towards her rendering her speechless, and before she can pull her thoughts together enough to formulate a response, the door flings open and Rebecca walks into her office, offering a short professional nod to them all. A slight, albeit sad, smile appears on her face when her gaze falls on Jordan, and her daughter shifts uncomfortably in her seat and averts her eyes down to her desk.

Her relationship with her mother has always been strained due to her frequent absences during her childhood, and now that Jordan knows the extent of the lies she was told regarding her mother’s line of work and the fate of her father, things are more strained than ever. She knows that Rebecca wants to make things right, but it’s all Jordan can manage to simply remain professional towards her.

"How are you?"

She asks, loudly enough for the whole unit to hear, but her gaze remains fixed on Jordan, who forces a small smile to her face.

"Can't complain."

She answers politely and she can't help but notice how the older woman's face falls ever so slightly upon hearing the non-conversational response.

"Right. Straight to business then I suppose…"

She perches on the corner of the desk and studies the group.

"The number of children reported as missing around Schwarzwald has risen an alarming amount over the past few months. The agents in the area would like assistance."

There's silence. _Dead_ silence, for a long time, before Felix speaks up slowly.

"The Schwarz… what?"

"The black forest."

Nate answers before Rebecca can, and she looks as though she's bracing herself for an argument.

"As in, Germany?"

Jordan asks incredulously, to which Rebecca nods. What a ridiculous notion. Surely a problem in Germany could be handled by agents closer by.

"Is there a reason we're being pulled from here? Can't agents in Germany handle it?"

Adam voices Jordan's thoughts and she glances over at him to get a read on whether he's outraged or just genuinely curious. As per usual, his expression is void of anything as he stares at Rebecca in wait of her answer.

"It's… there's been rumours around that part of the country. Locals think it’s Erlking.”

Mason barks out a disbelieving laugh at that, harshly butting his cigarette into the bottom of the potted plant sitting on top of the filing cabinet.

“Are you telling me, we have to go to Germany, because local agents are too scared of a make believe fairy to go into the forest?”

Rebecca winces, her face says _yes,_ but she shakes her head.

“They have expressed concerns- The agency has decided they would be more comfortable sending vampires, and since things have been quiet here for a while now…”

She trails off, studying each of the members of Unit Bravo in turn until her eyes come to rest on Adam. Jordan sees his chest rise and fall with the sigh he holds back; he’s clearly as happy about this assignment as Mason is.

“Whatever you wish, ma’am.”

Rebecca gives a short nod and a grateful half smile in response before getting to her feet.

“Your flight leaves at 5am tomorrow. Mayor Friedman and Captain Sung have been briefed, Jordan. They know you’re going to be away on Agency work indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely?”

That sounds a little more ominous than Jordan would like. She’s not planning to relocate to Germany with four vampires. But Rebecca doesn’t answer, simply gives her a long look before walking out of the room, leaving them all staring at the closed door behind her.

“Sooo… what’s an Erlking?”

Felix drawls after a moment of silence, and Mason scoffs before lighting up another cigarette.

“A fairy tale.”

He answers shortly, and Nate sighs before tapping Felix’s arm to get his attention.

“Folklore. Depending on which legend you hear, he’s either an elf or a fairy who kidnaps either virgins or children.”

Jordan sees Mason grin out of the corner of her eye.

“Ah, now sending Jordan makes sense.”

“Fuck you.”

“You offering, sweetheart?”

Nate clears his throat loudly, shooting Mason something of a glare and then giving Adam a nervous glance before continuing.

“It’s said that he’s sustained by the souls of his victims, so wanting vampires to be involved makes sense.”

“It doesn’t matter either way, because he doesn’t exist. I don’t understand why-”

Mason starts to rant his objection, but stops short as Adam steps forward, his shadow before the window casting the office in an eerie semi-darkness.

“Whether or not the stories are true, we’ve been given a mission. It’s our job and we will go and do as we have been asked. At the most, we find whatever it is we’re looking for and stop these children from going missing. At the least, we find nothing and get through a mission unscathed for once. Understood, Agent?”

He stares Mason down pointedly until he noisily blows out a breath of smoke in an unimpressed sigh and nods.

“Yes’sir.”

“Very well. I suggest we all get an early night, we’re going to need our rest.”

He turns sharply towards Jordan, though it sounds as though he’s addressing the whole group. Everyone in the room knows very well that Jordan is the only one of them needing an early night in order to be rested, but she notices that since the carnival, his attitude towards her has changed just slightly. So slightly that if you didn’t look hard enough you would hardly see the difference. But now he seems to refrain from singling her out as the weak link in the group quite as often as he used to.

“He means you, you know.”

Felix adds unhelpfully, chuckling when Jordan rolls her eyes at him and gets to her feet.

“Yeah, I got that, thanks.”

\--

Jordan has just finished zipping up her suitcase when she hears a knock at the door. She has a vague idea of who would be showing up unannounced at almost midnight, despite Adam’s request for her to get an early night, and she raises an eyebrow upon opening the door to Mason.

He's leaning casually against the door frame, one hand in the pocket of his jeans and smirking at her. The scent of a cigarette wafts past with the breeze of the door being pulled open, letting her know that he must have just extinguished one before knocking.

"Something I can do for you?"

She asks, half annoyed by the mere sight of him and half excited for what she knows it means when he comes to see her at night, on his own. His smirk widens into a grin and he steps inside without being invited, the door closing behind him with a soft click.

"There's _a lot_ you can do for me sweetheart, you know that."

"We need to be up early."

Even she can hear how empty her protest is, and as expected Mason simply steps closer to her again and lifts a hand to her head, letting a few strands of her hair run through his fingers.

"That's why I didn't want to waste time by calling first."

“A little cocky, aren’t you? Just assuming that I’d invite you around if you were to call.”

His grin grows wider still as he steps closer again, so close that she can feel his breath on her forehead when he speaks again.

“Was my assumption wrong?”

“Depends what you’re going to do now that you’re here.”

She challenges, staring up at him expectantly as she waits for him to move again.

It's never as rushed with Mason as she expects it to be. He comes on strong, but he knows what he's doing. Jordan still isn't sure if that's why she continues to sleep with him, or if it's simply a matter of convenience. There's no need to avoid awkward conversations about her job or dodge questions about her work with the Agency with Mason. In fact there's no need to converse with him at all, a fact she often takes comfort in when she has more pressing matters on her mind. Which seems to be constantly, since she met the vampires and became a part of their team.

He takes his time getting her clothes off, letting his fingers and eyes trail over her body at every opportunity and then hooks a hand around the back of her neck, pulling her closer and kissing her again. His tongue forcefully but slowly explores her mouth, his sweet taste taking over her as she removes what she can of his clothing before she has to pull away to peel the rest of it off.

She moves towards the bed, but he catches her wrist and pulls her back towards him, ducking down to press slow, deliberate kisses to her neck.

"Where do you think you're going, sweetheart?"

He murmurs against her skin, and she gasps when his hand drops to the space between her legs.

"Nowhere."

She sighs out in response as his thumb begins to work circles over her clit. He pulls back to smirk at her.

"That's what I thought."

Her hands move to his shoulders and she grips him tightly, already feeling her knees going weak and he's barely even done anything yet. His groan matches hers when he slides two fingers inside of her and pumps them in and out slowly, making her fingers dig further into his shoulders.

"So wet for me already, Detective?"

He's trying to keep his cool, she can tell. He likes to have the upper hand, likes to make it seem as though he can get her hot and bothered and hardly be affected himself. But she can read his cues now. The way his breath stutters ever so slightly with every exhale, the way every few pumps he drives his fingers into her a little harder, as though he's hit with an urge to be as far inside of her as possible, and by the way his cock twitches against her abdomen when she finally lets out a breathy moan for him.

She manages to pull herself together enough to slide a hand down his body and wrap her fingers around his length, feeling him hard and burning hot in her hand. She teases her fingertips over the veins, from the base right up until she's running her thumb in slow circles around the tip.

"So worked up for me already, Agent."

She counters and he grins at her, abruptly sliding his fingers out of her and pushing her backwards onto the bed. His eyes stay fixed on hers as he puts his fingers into his mouth, slowly sucking her taste off of them before kneeing his way onto the bed with her.

“Turn over, sweetheart. Arch that pretty back for me.”

He almost growls the words out, his hands all over her thighs and hips as she turns onto her stomach. He raises up onto his knees behind her and she lets out a low moan as he rubs himself against her, letting the tip of his cock brush against her clit while his hand slides up the middle of her back before coming to rest on the back of her shoulder.

His other hand wraps around the top of one of her thighs and he pulls her back onto him, letting his hips snap forward against her at the same time.

"Fuck."

She grunts out, just before Mason leans further over her. His hand moves from her shoulder to the back of her head and he pins her down as he starts fucking into her, his other hand gripping her leg pulling her back against him just as hard as he’s pounding into her. She stays silent for as long as she can but eventually it gets to be too much and she lets her breath out in the form of a noisy whine, hearing him utter a groan of his own from behind her as her arms stretch out above her to curl her fingers around one of her pillows.

He feels good, so good, but she wants more. It’s been weeks since she’s seen him, and knowing that they’re leaving for a glorified group camping trip the next day means that she’s not sure when they’ll get another chance, so she waits for his grip on her thigh to loosen the slightest bit and takes the opportunity to shove herself back onto him.

“C’mon, I thought you were supposed to have super strength.”

She murmurs out into the pillow. _Success._ He lets go of her and moves his hand from her head before pulling out and roughly flipping her over onto her back.

“You want it harder, huh?”

He growls out as he crawls above her, placing his hands on her waist and shoving her further up the bed until she’s half sitting up against the rails of her bedhead, the cold metal against her back making her hiss and arch towards him.

“Clever boy, you worked that out all by yourself.”

She smirks at him and brings her legs up to wrap around his waist, but he immediately unwraps them and hooks them up onto his shoulders. He practically folds her in half as he leans back over her, taking both of her hands in one of his and moving them up to the top rail above her head. He wraps his hand around the rail over them, easily pinning her hands up above her head and resting his other hand flat on her stomach to hold her body still as he pushes back inside of her.

It doesn’t take much to rile him up, even less so in bed, and she keeps her eyes on his for a moment as he starts driving himself into her again. When his movements become forceful enough for the bedhead to start hitting the wall behind her, she lets her head fall back and closes her eyes, unable to move much with the way he has her pinned down.

“Hey, hey.”

He brings his hand up from her thigh to tap her cheek, keeping it _just_ light enough to not be able to call it a slap, to get her attention.

“Did I say you could stop looking at me?”

His low voice murmurs in her ear, and her eyes snap back open to focus on his again. He’s watching her with a hunger in her eyes that she’s all too familiar with by now, his attention divided between watching her face and watching the veins in her neck pulsing as he slams into her.

She’s close; every muscle in her body begins to tense up, causing her legs to hook onto his shoulders even more tightly and making his thrusts more erratic.

“Stay.”

He commands, his panting giving away how close he is himself, and he lets go of her hands and begins to sit up a little more, his hand trailing down the front of her body in search of her clit.

 _No._ This isn’t what she wants. She wants his weight on her, pinning her down. She wants to feel the way he trembles when he’s about to lose it, she wants him close to enough to be able to hear her blood rushing through her veins, she wants to drive him crazy, because _that’s_ the best way to get the upper hand on Mason.

So, she grins at him despite the urge to clench her teeth together as she feels herself approaching the edge, and she slowly unwraps her fingers from around the railing and lowers her arms. She leans up on her elbows, reveling in the surprised, borderline outraged expression on his face, and whispers in his ear.

“Make me.”

He growls and his hips stutter against her, even though he’s doing his best not to show her she can tell she’s getting to him. With one hand on her chest he shoves her back down into position and then roughly moves her arms back up to where he wants them, his hand once again wrapping around them to keep them in place. His grip is much tighter this time, so tight that her fingers are pressing into the cold iron and already beginning to ache, but she barely notices as his body covers hers again and his fingers dig into the flesh of her stomach.

“You… can be… such a fucking bitch… sometimes.”

He gasps out against her neck, and the feeling of his tongue tracing along the line of her artery sends a shiver down her spine. Her body arches up against him as her orgasm builds in the pit of her stomach and then washes over her, and she lifts her head again as much as she can to bite down hard on his shoulder.

He grunts and pushes down harder with his hand, holding her completely still against the mattress as she writhes against his grip. His breath hitches and he holds it, the combination of her walls squeezing and pulsing around his cock and the slight circular motions she’s managing with her hips grabbing hold of him and dragging him over the edge with her.

His hips jerk against her almost violently and she whimpers at the feeling of him throbbing inside of her as her orgasm slowly ebbs away, the muscles that she didn’t even realise she was tensing finally relaxing as he loosens his grip. She rolls her hips up against him, smiling smugly to herself when it makes his body twitch against her and forces a soft groan from his mouth.

He lets go of her hands and pulls out of her then rocks back onto his knees, watching her as she lowers her arms and cracks the knuckles of both hands.

“Hard enough for you, sweetheart?”

He asks with a smirk as he shuffles off the end of the bed and goes in search of his clothing. She chuckles and reaches down to pull her duvet over herself. They’ve done this enough times that she knows he’s not going to spend the night, so there’s no point in even pretending anymore. She watches him as he dresses, and gives a small shrug in response.

“There’s always room for improvement.”

He laughs and shrugs his jacket on, stopping to look back over at her.

“See you in the morning, Detective.”

He shoots her a wink before walking out of the room, and a few seconds later she hears her front door open and then close again. She settles into her bed, wrapping the covers tightly around her as she already feels herself falling asleep. Out of nowhere her mind begins to conjure up images of what could be waiting for them in the black forest, but she very quickly orders the potential nightmares away. Whatever it is, whatever they were up against, she would worry about it when it was in front of her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy wow, thank you so so much for all the kudos and beautiful comments I got on the first chapter!! It means the world ❤❤
> 
> And thank you once again to Alicia for helping me out with some Adam-ness 😘

The members of Unit Bravo are littered around the airfield, their private jet ready and waiting for them, everyone ready to go. Everyone, except for Jordan. Adam sighs and checks the time on his watch yet again, his face twisting into a slight frown when he discovers that she's still technically not late. His annoyance is unnecessary, which only serves to irritate him further.

"Anxious to see her?"

Felix's voice cuts through the early morning silence, and Adam frowns down at him.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure."

Felix grins at him wordlessly for a moment, until Adam lets out a sigh of annoyance and looks away again.

"I just want to get going and she's holding us up."

He explains, and a second later he hears Jordan's voice behind him, cheerfully greeting them.

"You're late."

He states, spinning around and narrowing his eyes at her as she frowns and pulls her phone from the pocket of her jeans.

"I'm two minutes early."

She corrects, looking back at him pointedly.

"Two minutes early is eight minutes late, you should always be where you need to be at least ten minutes ahead of schedule."

"Well, Adam. We don't all have 900 years of military experience under our belt, now do we? Some of us run on normal earth time."

She grins at the scowl on his face and pats his shoulder as she strides past him to talk to Felix. Adam takes a deep breath and turns his attention away from her and towards where Nate and Mason have been watching the exchange, looking more amused than he's happy with.

"Yes?"

He asks them pointedly, and Nate shakes his head with a small smile, while Mason's smirk spreads into a grin as he drops his cigarette on the ground and steps on it to put it out.

"I don't know what to tell you, I tried to wear her out so she'd have a good night's sleep."

Nate's eyes widen and he looks between the two of them, giving Mason a small elbow to the ribs when Adam sucks in a sharp breath.

"While under normal circumstances I don't have the need nor want to be informed as to what you do with her in private, I do feel that the two of you actively participating in your… _relationship_ while we’re on a mission is a distraction.”

Mason’s grin fades slightly, and he gives a small nod.

“Noted.”

Adam doesn’t understand Mason’s relationship with the Detective. He supposes she’s somewhat attractive, but he doesn’t see how Mason can willingly spend more time than necessary with someone so… aggravating. On long days when he’s seen more of her than usual, Adam sometimes wants nothing more than to gag her so that he doesn’t have to listen to her speak anymore.

Other times, he feels differently. Times like now, when he looks over at her and Felix laughing together. Laughing so hard in fact that they’re both doubled over and leaning on each other for support. Times like these he feels something that he’s not felt in a long while, and he’s fairly certain he’s not comfortable with feeling it now. Sometimes, he wants her to act with him as she does with the others.

With Felix she always seems carefree. They’re always laughing together, always joking, always coming up with new and inventive ways to entertain themselves if there’s nothing else to do. With Nate she’s calm. He knows that she goes to his friend when she has something serious on her mind; something that Felix nor Mason would be of any use to her with. She flirts incessantly with Mason, sometimes to the point where if one of the others happens to step into one of their conversations, she’s so wrapped up in it that she comes back with a suggestive reply as though she’s forgotten there’s anyone else around that could possibly be talking to her.

She’s neither carefree, or calm, or flirty with Adam though. There have been times that she’s looked at him a little differently, but those are so few and far between that he sometimes wonders if they’ve even happened at all. No, with Adam she’s all business, other than when she’s mocking him for something, or when she and Felix decide that their entertainment of the hour is to try to rile him up and get a reaction out of him.

Not that he wants any kind of relationship other than a professional one with her. As he has repeatedly told Mason, personal relationships between unit members are unprofessional. They are a distraction, and under the wrong circumstances, a rather dangerous one.

“You know you could lighten up a little and have a relationship with her that’s a little closer to what theirs is.”

Nate’s voice snaps him out of his own thoughts and he looks over at his friend, pulling his face back into line and giving a harsh shake of his head.

“I have no need to have any more of a relationship with her than the one I have right now.”

“It’s not really about need though, is it Adam?”

Adam stares calmly at him for a moment before turning away without answering and heading for the jet.

 _“Now_ we’re late.”

He calls out to the rest of them before climbing up the staircase and into the aircraft.

\--

He's less than impressed when Jordan chooses to sit beside him, their seats so close together that they're sharing an arm rest, and of course she _refuses_ to remove her arm despite the fact that it's laying half on top of his. He stares at it for a moment, then back up at her face to see her staring back, and he swears he can see the tiniest hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. She's deliberately baiting him. He will not fall for it, but at the same time he doesn’t want her arm resting on his as it is, so he shifts his a little to the side, close enough for him to feel the heat radiating off of hers, but no longer touching.

Being so close to her that he can hear the quiet rush of blood flowing through her veins does something to him; does something to his mind and makes his body tense up more than usual. He hates it. Or at least that's what he tells himself, even if sometimes he seeks it out. As though her presence is a drug, sometimes he craves it so badly that he'll go out of his way simply to stand a little closer to her. Just until he feels the faintest wave of body heat and hears that steady rush, as comforting as some might find the quiet roar of the ocean.

He realises he's still staring at her, so caught up in the relief that being near to her brings that he didn't even notice. She leans closer still to lift off of her seat and retrieve her phone from her back pocket and his breath catches in the back of his throat when a few strands of her hair brush across his arm. She holds her phone out to him and he looks at it in confusion.

"I thought you might like to take a picture."

"Of?"

"Me. So you can stop staring and we can talk about this mission."

Her smile is still faint, but most definitely there now, and he waves the phone away indignantly.

"I was not staring. Merely wondering what the reasoning is behind you sitting so close to me."

"I want to know your thoughts on this mission. Do you have a plan?"

"Tonight, we stay in Kraichgau. Tomorrow we will receive more information from the Agency and gather as much information as we can from locals before we head into the forest."

"So, we'll be camping?"

His attention snaps over to her and he raises an eyebrow.

"Is that a problem?"

"Like with tents?"

"Unless you would like to fashion yourself a shelter out of sticks and leaves every night, yes, with a tent."

 _"A_ tent? A singular tent?"

Her eyes are wide with disbelief and he has to close his own for a moment while he pushes the look of exasperation off of his face.

"Is there a problem, Detective Mills?"

"I just… I mean, you guys are huge. And, in _one_ tent?"

He finally lets out the sigh he's been holding back, the circling in conversation quickly fraying his nerves.

"There will be sufficient space for us all. You are the only one of us who will need to ensure they sleep every night, we will not all be in there together and it's safer to have those of us resting doing it in one place that can be guarded by the others rather than spread out individually."

"Well I didn't say I wanted to be on my own."

Jordan grins at him and he eyes her wearily for a moment before shifting his gaze forwards again.

"I assume you're referring to your relationship with Agent M?"

"You assume correctly."

There's a slight pause; Adam has already spoken to Mason but he thinks the message might come across a little stronger if both of them know where he stands.

"I would prefer that you put that on hold while we're on an active mission."

He can feel her bristle without even needing to look at her, he can hear her heartbeat speed up.

“Excuse me?”

Any trace of playfulness has left her voice and as much as her teasing annoys him, the tone of her voice now leaves him feeling cold. He glances over at her and she’s watching him defiantly.

“It’s inappropriate, and it’s a distraction, and while we’re in an unknown location looking for a little known enemy, none of us can afford to be distracted.”

“And you don’t think you inserting yourself into my personal life is inappropriate and distracting?”

“Yes it is, and trust me, there’s many things I’d rather be doing than thinking about…”

He trails off, the entire topic of conversation making him uncomfortable, his body tensing up to the point he feels as though his shoulders are about to cramp up.

“Then don’t think about it.”

She snaps before getting to her feet. She frowns at him, looking as though she’s about to say something else for a moment, and he has to ball his hands into fists to stop himself from trying to stop her and sit her back down. She shakes her head instead of saying anymore and turns, marching down to the back of the plane and sitting next to Felix. The younger agent looks from her to Adam with a confused expression for a moment before Jordan says something that makes him laugh straight away and brings his attention back to her.

\--

By the time they land in Germany, Adam is so worked up and annoyed that he worries for a second that he’s not going to be able to get his muscles working enough to stand up. As though Jordan and most likely Mason being displeased with him isn’t inconvenient enough, the sound of her and Felix giggling together the entire flight had grated even further on his nerves and now he feels as though if he has to hear much more of it he’s going to explode.

He’s the first one on his feet and off of the plane when they finally land, striding towards the two cars waiting for them with longer than usual steps, eager to get away from the incessant and needlessly high pitched laughter.

“Adam!”

He hears Nate call from behind him and he slows his steps, but doesn’t stop completely. Still, Nate falls into step beside him easily and shoots him a concerned glance.

“What happened?”

"Nothing."

He replies nonchalantly, and Nate sighs before reaching a hand out and placing it on his shoulder in an effort to stop him for a moment. It doesn’t work, and Adam simply flicks his gaze over to Nate for a split second as he continues on, only stopping when he reaches the car.

“You should know by now she doesn’t respond well to being told what to do.”

“While she’s with us, she’s a member of Bravo, a soldier. Being told what to do by her Commander - me - is a part of that.”

“She’s not a fully trained agent and you know it, Adam. You can’t hold her to the same standards that you hold us to.”

“I most certainly can, and if she wants to remain a part of this team she will get used to it.”

He answers abruptly before pulling open the door of the car and stooping down to get inside. Nate turns to face the others as they approach a moment later, and shoots Jordan a hesitant look.

“Adam and I will take this one, you three take the other car.”

“He’s still pissed?”

Jordan asks with a slight eye roll, and Nate glances down toward the car to make sure Adam hasn’t heard her.

“He’s not angry. He’s… worried. And he’s not used to someone in his unit not doing whatever is asked of them.”

Jordan just sighs and trudges over to the car behind the one Adam had climbed into, Felix following behind happily. Nate is glad that Jordan at least has Felix and himself to depend on. As often careless and naive as Felix can be, he knows that he and Jordan get along as though they’d known each other and been best friends their entire lives, and he has noticed that Jordan seems to rely heavily on him when sometimes even Felix becomes too much for her.

He knows that things with Mason often become complicated and heated, and so he can understand where Adam is coming from to a point. Mason and Jordan do not particularly like each other. They work well together and they can be civil towards each other for the most part for the sake of the unit as a whole, but other than their questionable physical relationship, Nate isn’t aware of them getting along at all outside of their work together. Mason has never made a show of having any real feelings for her, nor Jordan about him, and sometimes he wonders and worries about how long this arrangement they have will last and what will be left of their attitudes towards each other once it’s over.

Adam on the other hand; the relationship between Jordan and Adam is beyond complicated. So much so that Nate isn’t sure that either of them could explain it if he was to ask them about it. Not that he would ever dare. He has broached the subject with Adam a select few times and is always very quickly shut down, but Nate can tell by the way he gazes at the Detective when he thinks no one’s looking, the way he often tries to find any excuse, no matter how small, to inch just a little closer to her. The way sometimes the usual tension in Adam’s shoulders dissipates when he’s around her, and other times - times like today - it increases until Adam is little more than a ball of tense muscle and nervous energy, something he hasn’t seen in his friend in all the years he’s known him.

He wishes that his old friend would allow himself to feel something, he wishes that he could admit those feelings at the very least to himself, at the most to the person for which he is feeling them. But he knows that the chances of that happening are slim to none, not without something drastic happening to force the emotions out of him. At this point, he doesn’t even know of something significant enough to make that happen.

“Are you getting in? We’re going to be late again.”

Adam asks in exasperation from inside the car, and Nate watches as Mason disappears into the second car behind Felix and Jordan before he gets in beside Adam and closes the door behind him.

“Don’t start.”

Adam warns, seemingly without even looking at him, and Nate smiles to himself. They have known each other for that long that they practically know what the other is thinking at all times. That is how Nate knows that Adam’s feelings towards the Detective are stronger than even he realises at the moment. That’s how he knows that Mason and Jordan’s relationship is hurtful for Adam deep down somewhere, but he knows it would be even more hurtful for him were Nate to disclose that information behind his back.

\--

Adam is all but back to normal by the time they reach the motel they are to be staying at, and though Nate tenses slightly when the other car pulls up and Felix gets out followed closely by Mason and Jordan, he remains that way as they walk inside wordlessly and Adam steps up to the reception to retrieve their keys.

He hands the two keys to Nate, then clasps his hands behind his back and wanders away from the rest of them. It’s clear to the rest of Unit Bravo, and probably anyone else who happens to see him, that he’s trying to look casual, but he looks every bit like a guard on a patrol as he does a lap of the motel lobby, his green eyes piercing harshly in every which direction until he is satisfied that nothing is lurking in wait of them.

Before Nate can hand any of the keys to anyone, Mason has snatched one out of his hand and is holding it up, nodding towards Jordan with a smirk on his face.

“She’s with me.”

Jordan grins and starts to move closer to Mason, but Adam steps between them and takes the key out of Mason’s hand, ignoring the dirty look he can feel Jordan burning into his back.

“No. You’re with me. She’s with them.”

He jerks a thumb over his shoulder towards Nate and Felix who stay quiet, though Adam can almost see the tiny smile Felix surely has on his face.

“Adam…”

Nate starts cautiously, but Adam whirls around to face him before he can get anymore out. He knows that this is still a sensitive issue with the Detective, and Nate has stressed to him the importance of picking his battles many times before, but this is one that he feels strongly he should stick to his guns with.

“No. She needs to sleep, she needs to stay focused. We don’t know what we’re heading into tomorrow, we can’t afford to have her running on empty out there.”

Nate sighs and looks to Jordan with what appears to be sympathy, lifting a hand and resting it on her shoulder.

“He has a point.”

It causes a strange stirring in Adam’s chest when she nods and her expression softens almost instantly when Nate speaks to her, even though he’s only agreeing with Adam. Why is it that she can accept it coming from him, but when he had brought it up earlier on the plane she’d snapped and walked away from him?

He supposes it’s because she’s much closer to Nate than she is to him, something which usually means nothing to him until it’s made obvious how much better they’d work together if she respected him as much as she respects the other members of his unit.

Without another word Jordan takes the other key from Nate, turns her back on all of them and makes her way down the hall behind the reception counter, headed for her room. Felix looks hesitantly between the rest of his team before giving a small shrug and jogging after her, yelling out for her to wait up.

“She’s not as much of a distraction as you seem to think she is.”

Mason tells him, watching Jordan disappear from view before turning to face Adam with one eyebrow arched.

“Perhaps it’s just that you are not as focused as you seem to think you are.”

He counters before turning his back and walking down the hall a few feet behind Jordan, Nate and Felix. He watches as they reach their door and Jordan unlocks it, not even sparing him and Mason so much as a glance before she stomps inside. Nate follows, and Felix at least pauses to give them a wave and a grin before he steps in behind them, the door closing with finality behind him. He waits until he hears the lock click and a chain slide into place before opening his own door and walking into the room, not even checking to make sure Mason is behind him.

He’s done the right thing, he’s sure of it. He knows that she and Felix will try to stay up late, probably planning pranks or making those damn paper planes that the Detective most unfortunately got Felix enraptured with, but he also knows that Nate will keep them in line and ensure that Jordan gets the rest she needs. It’s certainly a better option than letting her stay with Mason or even worse - sharing a room with her himself. He’s quite certain that he wouldn’t go through a full night alone with her and come out the other side completely unscathed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** Smut in this chapter, 18+ only.

Adam sits at a round table in the dining room of the motel, his hands clasped on the table in front of him and staring calmly at the door as he waits for the rest of his unit to make an appearance while Mason leans against the wall behind him. He checks his watch after a moment, and then lets out a noisy sigh.

 _“This time_ she’s late.”

He states, and Mason takes a break from glaring at the “no smoking” sign to glance down at him.

“Who’s late?”

“Detective Mills.”

“Felix and Nate aren’t here either.”

He points out, and Adam just turns his head to frown at him. It’s a valid point, yet he finds that Jordan is the only one he’s annoyed with. It's not that it's all that unusual for him to be more annoyed with her than is necessary. In fact it's so common now that he doesn't even find himself wondering why anymore. 

He's overly annoyed because she's overly annoying, that's all.

Before he can dwell on it for too long he hears her loud, obnoxious laughter ringing out and he involuntarily cringes, earning a chuckle from Mason.

"If you didn't make it so obvious that she gets under your skin she'd probably stop."

“She does not get under my skin.”

Mason raises an eyebrow before diverting his attention to the doorway as Nate walks in, Felix and Jordan trailing close behind.

“Finally.”

Adam mutters under his breath, everyone but Jordan hearing him despite his attempt at being quiet. Nate gives him a small frown as he sits down across from him.

“Everything alright?”

Adam’s eyes dart over to Jordan as she and Felix take their seats before he gives a short nod.

“Other than Agent M and myself being kept waiting, of course.”

He realises his reply is a little snappier than what is needed and his jaw clenches as he tries to distract himself from… well, from whatever it is that has him feeling this way.

“You think the trees are going to be angry that we’re three minutes late for our appointment in the forest?”

Felix grins at him before glancing at Jordan who’s fallen into a fit of giggles across from him.

“Three minutes late is really thirteen minutes late though, remember Felix?”

She composes herself enough to add, shooting a smirk in Adam’s direction as he narrows his eyes at her.

“If you’re finished?”

He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms over his chest. Felix’s grin fades and he at least makes an attempt at trying to appear serious. Jordan just holds his stare, the smile fading from her face but distinct amusement shining in her eyes. For a split second he can’t look away, until Mason clears his throat.

“If _you’re_ finished having a staring competition with the Detective.”

He teases, stepping forward to rest his hip on the back of Felix's chair and smirking at him. Adam ignores the comment and turns his attention back to the rest of the group. He knows that what he has to tell them isn’t going to go down well but it needs to be said nonetheless.

“I received further information from the Agency this morning.”

“So why are we here?”

Mason asks, sounding nothing short of unimpressed with the situation already. Before he answers Adam gestures to the map laid out before him, and they all lean in to get a closer look at where he’s pointing.

“This is where the highest concentration of disappearances has occurred over the last six months. This is where every other unit before us has been sent to investigate-”

“Wait, every other unit?”

Jordan interrupts him and his hand balls into a fist on the table.

“Yes.”

“How many other units?”

“Four.”

“If you tell me none of them ever made it back I’m going home.”

She retorts and he glances up at her, expecting to find her sneering or smirking at him but is surprised to find only genuine concern on her face.

“No, nothing like that.”

“So what then? They all failed?”

Mason joins in, looking less concerned and more agitated.

“Yes.”

Adam answers shortly, and the rest of the unit fall silent, unsure what to say to the blunt response.

“Failed how?”

Nate finally asks, his voice quiet.

“Failed by not succeeding to locate a target.”

“Because there’s nothing to locate, I knew it!”

Mason slams a hand down on the table in frustration.

“We came here, to the freezing cold, for nothing. To chase a figment of a couple of whack jobs’ imaginations.”

“Children are disappearing.”

Nate reminds him gently, to which Mason rolls his eyes and takes a step back, moving to lean against the corner of the table beside them.

“Because they probably saw a rabbit or some shit and chased it and got lost. Kids do dumb shit.”

“Enough!”

Adam interrupts whatever Nate is about to say in response loud enough to draw a curious glance from a woman sitting at the other side of the room. He sighs heavily and points to the map again.

“This is where we are being sent, and this is where we will go. And when we come back we will report to Agent Mills whatever we find, be it human, supernatural or nothing at all. Understood?”

No one replies, just giving short nods in response as Adam’s ‘we gotta do what we gotta do’ stance has been made perfectly clear to all of them.

\--

It’s drawing close to midday by the time Jordan and Adam are standing together at the edge of the forest, waiting for the rest of Unit Bravo. The silence between them is deafening and awkward after spending the last three hours talking to locals and gaining as much information about the forest and what may be in it as possible. Which turned out to be not much at all beyond myths and legends dating back to the 1800s, and Jordan could tell that the lack of efficiency among the largely elderly population had annoyed him. Not a hard thing to achieve to be fair, but now she was left alone to deal with his sulky mood and it didn’t sit right with her.

“You think you’re going to lighten up at some stage while we’re here?”

She finally breaks the silence and he turns towards her sharply for a moment before returning his gaze back to the forest before them.

“No.”

He answers simply, and she sighs and looks away from him with a roll of her eyes. She hears him shift and out of the corner of her eye she sees him turning a little to face her.

“I apologise for what I said to you during the flight yesterday.”

“So you should. What me and Mason do is none of your business.”

He looks about to object but then gives a small shake of his head, seemingly unwilling to start another argument with her.

“I know.”

“You know I don’t want to fight with you all the time, right?”

“I don’t wish to argue with you either.”

"You know I could maybe even like you a little one day if it stopped?"

She turns to face him again and just about falls over when the harshness fades from his eyes and he _smiles_ at her, even if only for a brief second. So brief that she's certain she has to have imagined the dimples that flashed onto his cheeks when the corners of his mouth had quirked up.

"We could be something akin to friends, I agree."

“So, truce?”

“Truce.”

He agrees, and she pats the side of his shoulder with a grin just as the rest of Unit Bravo approaches them.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you two were getting along.”

Felix calls before they reach them, and whatever hint of a smile had been left on Adam’s face is quickly wiped away and replaced by his usual emotionless glare.

“Did you find out anything?”

Adam asks instead of answering, and Mason rolls his eyes.

“No. Nothing of use.”

Nate replies quickly before Mason can give an answer of his own, and Adam gives a short nod and turns back towards the forest, hoisting his back pack further up his back before setting off into the brush without saying anymore.

“I guess we’re going then?”

Felix casts a glance around the rest of the group before jogging after Adam.

\--

She doesn’t know quite what she was expecting out of the forest from which most of the fairytales she knows originate. Maybe something dark and ominous and exciting, but it’s quite the opposite. Dark yes, but the sporadic spattering of light filtering through the thick canopy above them is quite nice and provides more than enough light than even she needs to be able to see her way clearly. At one point they make their way over a small wooden bridge and off to the side she can hear the quiet roar of a waterfall. Maybe this mission won’t be as bad as she first thought, especially if they end up finding nothing as Mason expects.

He doesn’t seem to be having half as good of a time as Jordan. He trudges along at the back of the group, his leather jacket closed all the way up to his chin and his hands shoved deep into his pockets, only bringing them out for the occasional cigarette, and even those he’s not having as many of as usual. She can just about hear his teeth chattering behind where she’s walking with Felix, who looks every bit like a kid in a candy factory, as the saying goes. He’s looking around wide eyed, at one point telling her that it reminds him a little of home just less colourful or vibrant.

She is about to ask him more about the Echo World when Adam turns and gives them a stern glare, wordlessly warning them to keep quiet. Well, so much for their truce. She bites back a reply and rolls her eyes at Felix, who just gives her a silent shrug in return. She can tell that the head of the unit is on high alert, his gaze darting in every direction as he walks, his neck craned and shoulders tense as he listens for the smallest of noises around them. By the time he stops and announces that it’s time to set up camp for the night, Jordan’s fairly certain that they’re not going to find anything, just like the agents before them.

For as pleasant as she finds the forest during the day, it becomes an entirely different place at night - one a little closer to what she was expecting. Where before there had been comforting spots of light and warmth there is now only shadow, and the frequent rustles coming from the undergrowth and trees around them does nothing to calm her nerves. She’s almost glad when it becomes too dark for her to see anything and she can escape to the safety of the tent. Adam and Nate volunteer themselves to keep watch for the first night, and Mason dives into the relative warmth of the tent in comparison to outside almost as eagerly as she did herself. Felix climbs in a little while after them, bidding them both a quiet goodnight and almost immediately falling asleep.

She's almost asleep herself when she feels a hand slide down her arm from her shoulder and then slip under her shirt. She doesn't even need to look to know who it is; only one member of Unit Bravo would dare, or have any interest in touching her that way.

"Piss off, Mason."

She grumbles sleepily. She has no intention of fucking him in front of the other vampires, nor in hearing about it from Adam for the rest of their glorified camping trip. She feels him slide closer until his body is flush against hers.

"Adam and Nate are outside keeping watch and Felix is out cold, all you need to do is keep quiet. Think you can manage that, sweetheart?"

She shivers when his breath ghosts across her neck and ear, and he's so close to her that she can feel his face move as he smirks against her shoulder. She gives a small nod and his hand moves further up under her shirt until he's cupping one of her breasts.

"That's a good girl."

He pinches her nipple and leans further over her to kiss her neck, pausing at the start of her shoulder to suck at her skin lightly until she sighs softly and pushes her ass back against him.

She feels him moving around, and when he tugs at her underwear and presses himself back against her she realises he’d been slipping his boxers off. She awkwardly lifts her hips as much as she can from her position and allows him to slide the clothing out of the way and then slides his arm under her head, curling it around to cover her mouth with one hand.

She sucks his forefinger and middle finger into her mouth, swirling her tongue around them and grins against his hand when he groans quietly into her neck. His other hand trails down her body, coming to stop between her legs and he circles her clit slowly, chuckling when she bites down on his fingers lightly to stifle a groan of her own.

He moves his hand down her leg and grips her thigh, lifting her leg up out of the way and hooking it backwards over his hip as he positions himself behind her, pushing his fingers into her mouth again to keep her quiet as he eases himself inside of her. She gasps against his hand, her eyes squeezing closed and her hands balling into fists as she struggles to keep from making any noise, and Mason letting out a stuttered breath into her ear as he fully hilts himself inside of her isn’t helping.

“Shh.”

He whispers before starting to move into her, his hips rolling up against hers and his fingers moving to her clit again. Jordan digs her heel into where it’s resting on his backside, trying to get him to move harder, faster, _something,_ but he keeps up his steady pace and she feels him open his mouth and start sucking on her neck, probably more to keep himself quiet than anything else but whatever his reasons are, it’s working for her.

She whimpers against his hand and tries to suck back some of the drool that’s escaped her mouth from having his fingers stuffed in there but he refuses to move them, instead he tightens his grip on the side of her jaw as he picks up his pace. The sound of his skin hitting hers suddenly sounds far too loud, but even if she didn’t have her mouth full she’s not sure she’d want to tell him to slow down anyway. His fingers are working relentlessly at her clit, his thrusts getting quicker and harder, when suddenly there’s a noise from the entrance of the tent and Mason stops dead and holds his breath when they clearly hear Adam and Nate’s voices. She can’t make out what they’re saying, but she can tell they’re only just outside; definitely close enough to have heard the movement coming from inside the tent.

Mason holds perfectly still for a long while as they wait for the other two vampires to move, allowing Jordan to finally move her head enough to get his fingers out of her mouth and wipe her chin. Eventually he slowly starts moving again, despite the conversation still going on just outside of the tent. She can’t help the short giggle that she lets out when she suddenly imagines what Adam’s face might contort into if he were to climb into the tent right now and see them, but her laughter’s cut short by a moan that she can’t quite silence.

“They’re still there.”

She whispers, but he keeps rolling his hips against hers and slowly starts brushing his fingers over her clit again.

“I don’t think they’re going anywhere.”

He whispers back to her, and she grabs his hand again, clamping it over her mouth just in time to catch the whimper that escapes her lips.

“You like it don’t you? Knowing they might hear us.”

He growls in a low voice, biting down on her earlobe and moving his hand away from her clit to grip her waist as he speeds up again, his rhythm starting to falter. She’d answer him, probably with something sarcastic, only for the fact that she _really_ does like it. So much that she’s already starting to come, her hand shooting up to press his harder against her open mouth as she starts gasping and shuddering against him.

Mason lets out a strained chuckle when she clamps down around him and bites his hand in her effort to keep quiet.

“Yeah, I knew you were a dirty bitch.”

He moans as his hips jerk roughly against hers and his grip on her waist tightens. He presses his face into the back of her shoulder as he reaches his own orgasm, his hips bucking erratically and his hand moving from her mouth down to her throat and squeezing lightly to feel it working as she tries to calm her breathing back down.

Eventually he pulls out of her and rolls away and Jordan can feel him moving and pulling his shorts back up as she does the same with her underwear. He doesn’t come back closer to her, which she had completely expected, but at least now she finds she has an easier time falling asleep.

\--

Adam subtly side-eyes Jordan as she clambers ungracefully out of the tent in the morning, shooting Felix a grin and bumping his hip with hers as she immediately starts helping him pull the tent down.

He tries to focus on their surroundings, but the sound of her laugh keeps distracting him, tugging his thoughts back to the muffled giggle he'd heard coming from the tent overnight. A muffled giggle followed by a drawn out, hushed moan. He frowns at the memory of the sound and shifts in the way he's standing so that he can't see her at all.

“Is something wrong?”

Nate steps up beside him, joining him in searching the forest around them before turning to face him fully.

“No.”

“Are you going to talk to them about it?”

“Talk to who about what?”

“Mason and Jordan. About… what they were doing last night.”

“We don’t know what they were doing.”

Nate stays quiet, and even though Adam isn’t looking at him, the sympathetic expression that he knows he’s probably got plastered over his face is practically ingrained in his memory after the last few months.

“And even if we do, talking to them apparently didn’t do much good last time, did it?”

He finally looks over at his friend, sighing heavily at the expression that he’d predicted.

“If you just told Mason, you know he wouldn’t stand in your way.”

Adam narrows his eyes.

“If I told Mason what?”

Nate hesitates and he follows his eyes when he glances over to where Jordan is now on her own with the tent as Felix is heading towards them, while Mason leans against a tree, smoking a cigarette and watching her with seemingly no intention of helping.

“Nothing.”

Nate shakes his head as Felix gets closer, and whatever the conversation was heading towards is put to an end.

“I heard - no, felt - something last night. I think there’s something else in this forest.”

Felix announces nervously, looking up at them every bit like a child trying to convince his parents that a monster resides in his closet.

“There are a lot of things in this forest.”

Adam retorts with a frown, unable to help his eyes from shifting up towards Jordan when she and Mason walk over to them, then tent fully pulled down and packed away. Perhaps Mason had helped her after all.

"What kind of something?"

Nate asks gently, shooting Adam a disapproving glance at his immediate disregard for the younger vampire's observation.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm surprised he could hear or sense anything with these two… fornicating two feet away from him."

He gestures towards Mason and Jordan without looking at them, but it doesn't stop him from sensing Jordan's eye roll. Nate looks about to reply, but seems to change his mind and turns his attention back to Felix, giving a small nod.

"I don't know."

"Could it have just been an animal?"

 _"Just_ an animal?"

Jordan asks incredulously, and finally Adam swivels his head around to look at her.

"We are in a forest, Detective."

She looks around in mock disbelief for a moment before looking back at him with what could only be described as impatience.

"So we are, Commander."

"Forests are home to a number of animals."

He points out, and she just stares at him blankly for a moment before turning back to Felix.

"Could it have been an animal?"

She asks him, the shift in her tone of voice making Adam frown slightly. She has never spoken to him so gently.

"Technically, I suppose so."

He answers, sounding unsure of his own answer, and Adam's gaze lingers on him for a moment before giving a slight nod.

"Either way, sitting about isn't going to get us anywhere. We need to get moving."

He’s far more worried about Felix’s observation that he cares to admit. Felix has always been perceptive, often able to sense things before any of the other members of Unit Bravo, and Adam knows that it’s unlikely that he would have even brought it up if it wasn’t something that was worrying to him. But sitting around and indulging one person’s worries isn’t going to get them anywhere, they need to reach the spot on the map and see if they can find anything there.

It’s entirely possible that there are supernatural living in this forest, in fact it’s probably more likely than not. But that doesn’t mean that they’re a threat to his unit, or even that they’ll be willing to be discovered. He’ll try to stay more vigilant than usual now that something has been brought to his attention, but he doesn’t see a point in making a big deal of it and worrying his agents for potentially no reason.

\--

"Hey! You okay?"

Jordan falls into step beside Felix after spending the better part of an hour watching him walking quietly on his own, uncharacteristically nervous and turning in a circle every so often as he walks, amber eyes scanning the brush around them. He's almost acting like Adam, but that thought is pushed away as quickly as it appears when Felix grins at her. She's never seen Adam smile properly.

"Yeah, of course."

His words are strained, smile forced, and Jordan frowns at him.

"No you're not."

"It's nothing."

She wraps an arm around his waist and rests her head on his shoulder as they walk.

"If it's enough to worry you this much, it's not nothing."

He glances over at her and then sighs before speaking.

"Do you ever get that feeling like something's watching you?"

"You think something's watching us?"

Her skin prickles into goosebumps, the hair at the back of her neck standing on end as he nods.

"I think it's nothing, though. No one else feels that way."

He resigns, slinging an arm over her shoulders when she lifts her head to glance over at him.

"But none of them are like you, right?"

He doesn't answer her, just gives her an uneasy glance in return.

Aside from Felix acting very much out of character, the rest of the day is relatively boring and Jordan begins to wonder if they’re just walking in circles. Everything looks the same after two full days in the forest, and what she had found beautiful and calming the day before now seems tedious. That, on top of Felix’s weird behaviour and Mason’s constant complaints about the cold has her a little on edge by the time Adam abruptly stops in a small clearing in front of them and dumps his backpack on the ground, glancing up at what can be seen of the fading light.

"We should stop here."

He announces and turns around, his gaze pointedly fixed on Jordan.

"We need to rest."

"If by _we_ you mean _me,_ then I'm fine. It's not even dark yet."

She retorts, but Adam stands his ground.

"We don't want to be setting up in the dark."

He states with finality before spinning back around and proceeding to do his usual search of the area around them. He's made up his mind.

"Adam, I don't think-"

Felix tries to protest but he's already gone. Nate glances over at Felix, concern vaguely shadowing his features, before shaking it away and getting to work on the tent with Mason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** Smut in this chapter, 18+ only.

Jordan can barely remember helping to get the tent set up, or falling into the makeshift bed inside of it the night before. She'd been exhausted; the combination of keeping up with the brisk pace Adam had set and worrying about Felix's strange behaviour had proven too much. Not that she's about to let Adam know that.

He's the first thing she sees when her eyes slowly blink open, and the idea that it's a pretty good way to wake up is so fleeting that she almost misses it completely.  _ Almost.  _ He's laying on top of the sleeping bag beside her, hands clasped together on his stomach and eyes closed. She can hear the low murmurs of Felix and Mason talking quietly outside, and she leans up on one elbow to see Nate beside Adam, also still asleep.

She wonders briefly what would have possessed Adam to want to take up the space beside her, but decides not to dwell on it too much and takes the opportunity to study what he looks like at ease. His face is void of it's usual - so usual she'd thought it permanent - frown, the harsh lines of his face finally relaxed. She sometimes forgets how good looking he is, so caught up with always being frustrated or angry with him.

They're not exactly close, but close enough that if she stretched her arm out she could touch him. She's almost tempted to, when his eyes suddenly snap open as though he'd sensed what she was thinking of doing and had immediately gone on the defensive, even in his sleep. He turns his head to look at her, his green eyes studying her harshly and she feels like she's being reprimanded for something she was  _ thinking  _ about doing.

He seems to be waiting for her to say something, and his eyes soften just slightly when she doesn't. She can't blame him; she knows that she deliberately riles him up more than she needs to, but sometimes he's utterly infuriating and she needs to try to make a joke of it or she'll lose her mind. Better for him to be in a quiet state of agitation with her at all times than for them to be blowing up at each other multiple times a day.

But  _ this,  _ this is kind of… nice. Just laying side by side, staring at each other silently. His eyes break their hold on hers after a moment and his gaze drags slowly over her face. His hands unclasp from each other and he lifts one closer to her; for a split second she thinks he's actually going to do what she'd wanted to do and touch her.

Nate shifts beside him and Adam pulls his hand away as though it's been burnt and abruptly sits up. He cracks his knuckles one at a time, any trace of the softness she'd previously seen has disappeared when he looks back down at her.

"You didn’t sleep well.”

He points out as Nate sits up beside him.

“Are you telling me or is that an Adam way of asking me how I slept?”

“Telling you.”

His response surprises her more than annoys her, though she’s not sure why. It’s perfectly in character for Adam to think that he can even tell her that she’s not sleeping correctly.

“I slept fine.”

Adam opens his mouth to answer but Nate cuts him off.

“You were restless and mumbling. We thought for a short time that you were waking up, you seemed to be looking to go outside.”

Jordan frowns at the pair of them, Nate looking at her with concern as Adam abruptly turns away from her, checking the time on his watch before starting to make his way out of the tent.

“We need to get going.”

He instructs without looking back at them, already outside and moving away, and Jordan turns back to Nate and gives him a small shrug.

“I guess sleeping next to him is enough to make it a rough night.”

“Are you alright?”

He asks her gently, and she shoots him a smile before sitting up and straightening the long sleeved shirt she’d slept in.

“‘Course I am.”

She answers cheerfully before pulling her jeans and jacket back on and then crawling toward the entrance of the tent, ignoring the concerned look that Nate is still casting in her direction as she slips out into the cold morning.

The camp is packed up fairly quickly and they’re on their way again, Adam leading the way once again with Nate beside him, Jordan and Felix walking together a little way behind them and Mason trudging along off to the side, a cigarette hanging from his lips and his arms wrapped tightly around himself.

“You alright today?”

Jordan asks Felix after a while and he glances over at her, a very obviously forced smile on his face.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“After yesterday…”

“It’s nothing. Just a new place, you know?”

“Didn’t you say you guys had travelled all over when you were following Murphy? I thought you’d be used to new places.”

She’s trying to catch him out, but he seems to know it and he doesn’t answer her, just widens his smile for a moment before looking away. Still, she catches him glancing out past her nervously, into the bushes beside them.

\--

Adam marches on ahead of the rest of the unit a little faster than usual after the odd  _ moment  _ he'd had with Jordan. He was pretty sure it was a moment, anyway. It had been unusual to be silent with her; he'd been fully expecting her to make some kind of a joke, or simply to roll her eyes and move away from him when she awoke to find him beside her. But she had looked at him differently, appearing just as content to stay beside him as he had been for that short moment to be beside her.

Before he can think on what it could mean for too long, Mason jogs up to walk beside him, cupping a hand around the cigarette between his lips to light it.

"We need to talk."

Adam frowns over at him.

"About?"

Mason looks over his shoulder as though to make sure they're far enough away to not be overheard.

"Felix. Something’s up with him."

“Something?”

“He’s jittery.”

“He’s always jittery.”

“No, jittery like he’s nervous. He could barely keep his mind on the job last night.”

“Worryingly so?”

Mason takes a drag of his cigarette and shrugs, glancing over his shoulder again.

“If we needed him, yeah.”

Adam is silent for a moment as he also looks over his shoulder to where Felix walks with Jordan. It’s true that he’s not acting as he usually does; he’s uncharacteristically quiet and Adam can see that Jordan is attempting to make conversation with him, but the young vampire appears too distracted to be paying too much attention.

“Did he say any more about thinking something was near us?”

He asks, turning his attention back to Mason.

“Yeah.”

“Did you also get the sense that something was nearby?”

Mason looks hesitant for a moment, his eyes darting up to Adam’s quickly before looking ahead again as they walk.

“No.”

“Perhaps he’s sensing something we are not.”

Nate offers from his place beside Adam.

“Not likely though, is it?”

Mason tries to dismiss, but Adam looks between them thoughtfully.

“It’s a possibility. His powers of perception are more heightened than ours.”

The three of them fall silent for a moment, the only sound between the group being that of Jordan and Felix talking quietly together, and Adam can’t help but notice once again how strange the quiet is with them around. Eventually Mason drops back again, still huddled up in his jacket and scowling at nothing and everything all at once, clearly just as unhappy about being in the forest as he’d been the previous day.

“It’s true that he’s acting a little differently.”

Nate says after a few moments of silence, again glancing over to where Felix and Jordan are walking together. Usually whenever the two of them are together it results in laughter and the occasional prank on one of the other members of Unit Bravo. Now though, Felix is glancing around nervously every few seconds and Jordan walks quietly beside him, head down and face twisted in worry. Adam too follows them with his eyes for a long moment. Whereas their whispers and giggles often get on his nerves after a while, now he wants nothing more than to see them back to their usual selves. It’s unnerving to see Felix so on edge, so much so that even Jordan seems to be feeling the effects of it.

“Perhaps it would be wise to keep an eye on him. If he is indeed as distracted as Mason led me to believe, we can’t afford to assume that we can count on him if it is needed.”

Nate looks back at him with a small nod.

“Agreed.”

It bothers Adam, how unsettled Felix’s behaviour has made him. It’s becoming harder and harder to play off as nothing and he finds himself the most nervous he’s been about a mission for a long time. He hates it. He’s always prided himself of being sure of what he was leading his unit into, and having no idea what they were about to face, if anything, has him more on edge than he’d like to admit. He knows that Nate can tell though, it’s obvious in the way his friend doesn’t stray too far from him.

\--

Jordan is well and truly over the day by the time Adam announces that they can stop and start setting up camp. It’s a lot earlier than the last two days, and she notices that he keeps stealing worried glances at Felix when he thinks no one’s looking. She’s never seen him looking so uncertain and it doesn’t sit well with her. Adam’s a jerk and she only just gets along with him well enough to be able to maintain professionalism with him, but she’s always counted on him being her rock without him even knowing. Always sure, never afraid. Now that that image is slowly crumbling away she feels the least safe she’s felt since joining Unit Bravo.

“Nate and I will be keeping watch tonight, you three get some rest. You’re going to need it for tomorrow.”

This time as Adam mentions needing rest, he doesn’t focus solely on Jordan. He’s directing the advice towards Felix just as much, and it only serves to further tighten up the anxious knot in her stomach. She waits until Felix has disappeared into the tent before stepping closer to Adam.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not stupid.”

“I have never said as much.”

“I can tell Felix is acting weird. I can tell the rest of you are nervous. I can tell  _ you’re  _ nervous.”

“You should sleep. We’ll be arriving at our destination tomorrow, we can’t afford to have anyone at less than one hundred percent.”

She raises an eyebrow at his complete dismissal of her concerns before shaking her head and slowly backing away towards the tent.

“Yes’sir.”

She mutters under her breath as she turns and disappears into the tent with Mason and Felix.

\--

She’s restless, just like Adam and Nate told her she was the night before and now she realises that maybe they weren’t exaggerating like she thought they might have been.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Mason asks from beside her, and she flops over onto her back with a sigh and stares up at the roof of the tent before glancing over at him and Felix, who is sound asleep beside him.

“I don’t know.”

“Then stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Thrashing around. It’s annoying.”

She rolls her eyes and looks back up at the roof. God she dislikes this man sometimes.

“You have to find a way to switch off, you need rest.”

He adds after a moment, a small and surprisingly gentle note to his voice. She doesn’t answer for a minute, unsure how to proceed in this rare serious moment with him.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I don't know, I just can’t. Something’s off.”

Mason rolls onto his side to face her, and she glances back over to see a small smirk on his face.

“I can help you relax.”

He whispers and she fights the urge to roll her eyes again. There’s the Mason she’s used to.

“You think?”

“I know.”

He shuffles closer to her until he’s pressed against her side, his hand sliding over her stomach and leaning over to kiss her neck. She tries to get into it, he’s touching her in all the right ways, the ways that usually get her going, but her mind keeps drifting over the events of the last couple of days and how different Felix has been behaving. Even once he nudges her legs apart and rolls on top of her, settling himself between them and grinding down against her to let her feel that he’s already hard.

“Mason.”

She whispers, pushing at his chest to get him off of her. He lifts his head to check whether she's playing with him, but rolls off of her with a small sigh when he notices the serious expression on her face.

"You're not feeling it?"

"No, sorry."

"No need to be sorry."

They lay beside each other for a moment before Jordan glances over at him with a small smile on her face.

"I could use the distraction though if you want something else"

He smirks again and gives her a wink.

"I'd never turn down something else if that’s what you want, sweetheart."

She grins and leans up on one elbow, smoothing her other hand over his chest and stomach before grabbing the waistband of his shorts and he lifts his hips to let her yank them down. He’s still hard, though he’s already starting to lose it after her backing out, and she’s slightly impressed at how easy it had been to get him to stop and how quickly he seems to be calming himself back down.

She feels his hand rest on the back of her head as she runs her tongue up the underside of his dick and swirls it around his head, and he lightly pushes her down to take him into her mouth. He sighs quietly, and she quickly glances up at where Felix is laying on the other side of the tent, thankfully as far away from them as he could get, to make sure he’s still asleep. Satisfying herself that he is, she leans further over Mason and deep throats him, steadying herself on one hand between his knees and reaching up with the other to cover his mouth when he moans.

She bites down lightly, a small warning, before starting to bob her head on him, slowly picking up pace and moving her hand when he replaces it with his own. She lets it rest on his stomach, her fingertips digging in lightly as she focuses on how his abs rhythmically tense and relax as she pushes her face further onto him until her nose is pressing into his pelvis and his cock inches down the back of her throat.

His hips buck and her nails dig into his stomach as she gags on him a little, making him moan again just a little too loudly for his hand to be able to muffle it properly. She freezes, her eyes darting back up to Felix and he lets out a small huff, the hand on the back of her head making a fist in her hair and lifting her off of him a little before pushing her back down. She usually fights him a little more than this, but right now she’s so glad for the distraction that she lets him guide her head and fuck up into her face, glancing up to see him biting down on the side of his hand. His eyes roll back and his thrusts become uneven, so she leans up a little further to rest her hands on either of his hips to hold him down as she slows down. She can hear him panting in small desperate breaths against his hand, and he finally lets out a tiny, quiet whine when she sinks all the way back down onto him as he starts throbbing and then holds still as he starts to come down the back of her throat.

Another small choked noise escapes him as he tries to stay quiet and she can feel the hand in her hair shaking and his hips trying to push up against her as she waits for his cock to stop twitching in her mouth. She slowly drags her mouth up off of him, unable to stop a small giggle when her tongue swirls around his head again on the way, making his body jerk up away from her.

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, her lips curling into a pleased grin when she sees him with his eyes still closed, chest heaving as he gets his breathing back under control.

"You're welcome."

She teases, making her way back up to lay beside him, and a low chuckle escapes him as he lifts his hips and pulls his boxers back up. She rolls away from him to get comfortable, closing her eyes to try and sleep, her thoughts finally turned away from the weird vibe between the group enough for her to relax a little. They snap back open when she hears Felix's voice, quiet but sounding distinctly as though he's holding back laughter.

"I guess you thought I was asleep, huh?"

She lets out a bark of laughter at the sudden admission, turning and burying her face into the pillow to keep the rest of it quiet just as she hears the sound of a fist hitting something before Mason growls in annoyance.

"You couldn't have said something before?"

"What? And ruin the moment for you?"

She can still hear Felix laughing quietly to himself as she finally starts to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	5. Chapter 5

Felix is a lot more relaxed by the time the camp is packed up and they’re on their way again, and Jordan isn’t sure of the reason but she’s happy about it. Seeing her best friend as on edge as he’d been; such a contrast to the way he usually is, hadn’t been sitting right with her.

At least, she was happy about it at the start of the day, when she’d been skipping along beside him, teaching him the words to all of her favourite songs and singing at the top of her lungs with him, much to the disgust of both Adam and Mason, who told them several times to shut up. Unsuccessfully of course.

Adam announces that they’re close to where they were aiming for when they stop for a quick lunch break, and Jordan can’t help but notice the shift. Once they set off again the forest seems darker, more eerie. She sees shadows everywhere she looks, hears rustling everytime Felix falls quiet, which he does more and more often as he picks up her change of mood.

“Are you okay?”

He asks quietly, slowing his steps to walk beside where she’s fallen behind him, walking almost beside Mason, her arms crossed tightly around her midsection and her head down.

“Huh? Yeah.”

She answers dismissively, and she knows straight away that he’s not buying it from the arch of his eyebrow.

“I hope I haven’t scared you.”

“You never scare me.”

Not entirely true.  _ Scared  _ is exactly how she’d describe the way she’s felt about his behaviour over the last couple of days.

“I mean by saying something felt off. If it helps, I think I was reading too much into things. I don’t feel that way now.”

She wishes it helped. She wishes that telling her that made her feel better, but it doesn’t, and she doesn’t know why. The tiny hairs all over her body had been standing on end since lunchtime, her stomach was knotted up to the point she was struggling to stay upright and her chest felt as though Nate was sitting on her, and she just couldn't shake it. It was as though she was waiting for something. For what, she didn’t know, and that wasn’t helping the unease relentlessly washing over her.

Her eyes fall on a small red cap laying on the ground only seconds before Adam stops and shrugs his backpack off, holding it with one hand and turning to survey the area before setting it down beside him. 

“This is it.”

They both say at once, and Adam shoots her a confused look, to which she just wordlessly points to the cap a few feet away from him. He glances down at it, then back at her as though he’s afraid she’s about to fall apart. She holds his gaze for a moment before Felix nudges her and then takes a hold of her arm, dragging her away to start setting up.

“This isn’t as bad as I thought. I was expecting something gloomy you know?”

“This isn’t gloomy?”

Jordan snaps back absentmindedly, not noticing the way Felix pauses for a moment and stares at her. They finish setting the tent up in silence and she walks away when they’re done, shooting a dirty look in Mason’s direction.

“Thanks for the help.”

She mutters, and he smirks and shrugs.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

She whirls around to face him, hands balling into fists at her sides, and opens her mouth to speak to him before Nate gently takes a hold of her elbow and pulls her away.

“Maybe you should get some rest.”

He offers quietly as he leads her away from where Mason is watching her in confusion, and she snaps her gaze over to him.

“You know what? I’m so sick of you all telling me to  _ rest.  _ I know I’m just a  _ human  _ but I’m not as weak as you seem to think I am.”

“That’s not what-”

“No, it is what you meant. It’s what you always mean. It’s what  _ he  _ always means!”

She points in Adam’s direction before pulling her arm away from Nate and storming away, coming to stop in front of a tree and staring at it moodily. She knows she’s overreacted in a big way, even as she was saying it her mind had been screaming at her to shut up and stop being an idiot. Everything’s getting to her though. Everything and everyone and suddenly she regrets coming on this mission for the sole reason of not wanting to be around anyone.

\--

It’s some time before Jordan calms down and comes back to join the others, and Adam wonders what’s gotten into her. She’s always hot headed, it never takes much for him or Mason to get her to a place where she’s ready to yell at them, but he’s never before seen her be as short with Felix as she’d been for most of the afternoon. And he’s never seen her snap at Nate before. Nate is who she goes to when one of the others has made her want to snap.

He eyes her warily as she sits on a log beside the tent, her knee bouncing up and down nervously and staring at the ground as though she’s somewhere else completely.

“Perhaps you should go and speak with her?”

Nate suggests, and Adam frowns at him.

“Why would I do that?”

“Something’s not right.”

“And you think I’m going to be able to determine what that something is and then be able to rectify it?”

“Perhaps.”

“Isn’t this the kind of thing that you usually assist her with?”

“That didn’t work so well before though, did it?”

Adam lets out a heavy sigh and looks back over at Jordan before brushing down the front of his coat and making his way over to her. He stands in front of her for a moment, but sits down beside her when she doesn’t move to acknowledge his presence. He sees her eyes flit over towards him briefly as he does so, but she doesn’t look as though she’s going to turn and face him properly.

“What?”

She asks shortly after they sit together in silence for a moment, and he looks over at her before he starts speaking.

“Is something the matter?”

“Other than being in freezing cold, in a random country, with a bunch of vampires who don’t think I can be relied on? No, nothing’s the matter.”

“We think no such thing.”

“Really?”

Finally she looks up at him, though now he wishes she hadn’t. There is nothing other than contempt and hurt all over her face, and he racks his brain to try and figure out which of them has treated her any differently to usual and when to have drawn this kind of reaction from her.

“Really. I would not have agreed to you becoming a true member of my Unit if I didn’t believe that we could rely on you.”

She’s silent for a moment, studying his face intently before letting out a long sigh and visibly deflating, going back to staring at the ground though this time appearing more sad than angry. He even has to hold back from smiling a little at the knowledge that he actually managed to get through to her, even if he didn’t get the same kind of reaction that he imagines Nate or Felix would have received.

“So is something the matter?”

He tries again carefully, and she gives a small nod.

“There’s a weird vibe.”

“A… weird… vibe?”   


He repeats slowly, and she looks back over at him.

“That’s what I said Commander, yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means a weird vibe. This place makes me feel uneasy.”

“Perhaps you’re being affected by Felix’s strange mood.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

She mutters unconvincingly in response and he falls silent, unsure how to proceed with her. If they were in a battle with something or someone there would be no question in his mind about what to do. But  _ this,  _ the feelings and the compassion - he is no longer built for it. He hasn’t been in a long, long time and he’s not sure he even knows how to start getting back to someone who can actually be of use to someone emotionally.

“You should try to rest. We don’t need to go any further today."

Her jaw clenches at his suggestion but she just nods and hums a “mhm” in response. He watches her hesitantly for a moment before getting to his feet, stopping before walking away to unbutton his coat and drape it over her shoulders.

“And if you are, as you say freezing cold, then perhaps this will help.”

He walks away without another word to her, and doesn’t look back to see the way she pulls his coat tighter around herself and buries her face against the lapels.

\--

The last time she’d shared the tent with Nate and Adam, she’d been so tired that she couldn’t even remember climbing in beside them. Jordan is definitely awake enough to know what’s going on this time, and it’s strange. She spends the first twenty minutes sitting up on her sleeping bag, constantly shushing them as she tries to listen to noises outside of the tent and make sure that she can still hear Mason and Felix. Eventually the two vampires move to either side of her and seem to only just stop short of manhandling her into laying down, and now she’s lying awkwardly on her back in between them, Adam’s coat still wrapped around her.

Him giving her that had been one of the stranger things she’d experienced from him. Her involuntary reaction to it had been stranger still. When she’d wrapped herself up in it she’d immediately been hit with his scent, and for reason it had calmed her down and she couldn’t help but bury her face into the thick material and inhale deeply before snapping out of it. It was  _ Adam.  _ Why was she sniffing Adam? Granted, he smelt better than she could ever remember him smelling before, but she was not often close enough to him to smell him, she supposed.

Even once realising that she was acting like some kind of obsessed ex girlfriend over his damn coat, she hadn’t been willing to take it off. She’d offered reluctantly to hand it back over when she saw him crossing his arms over himself and rubbing at his arms, but he’d refused after a slight pause, claiming that she needed it more, which had both irritated her and caused warmth to spread through her chest at the same time. He was incredibly good at what he did, but she’d never thought of him as a very caring - or even very nice - person, but now she’s wondering if maybe she hadn’t given him enough credit.

\--

Somewhere in his mind he’s telling himself to look away as she starts falling asleep, but he just can’t. The way her face softens as she starts to relax, and the way she’s still wearing his coat. More than that, the way he feels seeing her wearing his coat warming his insides so much that he doesn’t even care how cold he is anymore. He feels as though he can’t get enough of it, and he knows it’s not wise - especially with her relationship with Mason continuing - but he just can’t stop  _ staring  _ at her.

“Why is she wearing that?”

Nate’s voice finally pulls him away from her and he casts a sharp look up at him.

“She was cold.”

“And you are not?”

“I am not Mason, the cold doesn’t cause me as much concern.”

“Why is she still wearing it then? I saw her try to hand it back to you before she came to bed.”

“I- it’s important that she rests. She needs to be comfortable.”

Nate falls silent for a moment, just staring at him, and Adam can see the thoughts ticking over in his old friend’s mind, he can see that he doesn’t believe a word of it. But he refuses to accept what that means.

“Adam-”

Nate starts, but Adam’s frown deepens before he shifts from where he is propped up on an elbow to watch Jordan and lays down on his back.

“Nate.”

He counters, more warning to his tone than anything else.

“You know this is not going to end well.”

“I do. And that is why I don’t know what it is you’re trying to imply.”

“I mean if you don’t tell her it’s not going to end well. What do you suppose will come of her ties to us once Mason is done with her or she is done with him?”

“I suppose she will request to be transferred to another unit.”

Truthfully Adam has never considered it. He doesn’t want to think about her wanting to get away from them, he doesn’t like the feeling it causes in his stomach and his chest.

“And you would let her go?”

“Once the Agency has approved I would have little say.”

“You know I try not to interfere in your private matters-”

“Perhaps now would not be a wise time to start.”

Adam cuts him off, the tone of his voice suggesting that the conversation is over, and thankfully Nate seems to take the hint and says no more. It is surprisingly easy for Adam to start to drift off laying beside Jordan, letting the steady thump of her heart beat lull him to sleep.

\--

Another small stone hits the trunk of a tree a few metres away from Felix, and he holds another up between his fingers, narrowing his eyes at the tree as he aims for the same spot. Keeping watch is  _ boring,  _ he’s always thought so. Especially when there’s nothing to be watching for, as seems to be the case right now. He isn’t sure why he was so on edge upon first entering the Black Forest, but now he can’t imagine feeling anything but bored. Sitting around in the dark, waiting for something to happen. He hears the click and hiss of a lighter from Mason over on the other side of the tent, probably just as bored, but they’d decided that they had better take their lookout duty seriously now that they were in the place they’d been heading for, instead of just spending the night goofing off.

He tires of throwing rocks at the tree and turns his attention to the sticks and leaves at his feet. He sits down on the ground cross legged and begins constructing a small town out of them. Antville, he tells himself. It will make something nice for the insects to explore once he gets out of their way and they can brave exploring the area again. A rustling from the tent distracts him momentarily, but he brushes it off as just someone shifting in their sleep and turns his attention back to the miniature city he’s building. The distinct sound of the tent’s zipper has him on his feet though and he turns to see Jordan stumbling outside.

“Adam’s gonna be mad if he thinks you’re not resting enough.”

He jokingly calls to her, but she doesn’t answer as she stumbles sleepily towards him. He frowns when he notices she’s not wearing shoes and is dressed only in underwear and a singlet top, Adam’s coat hanging haphazardly off one of her shoulders.

“Hey, Jordan.”

He calls to her again, but she still doesn’t answer. He hears Mason moving and glances over at him, easily seeing him through the darkness.

“Mason!”

He yells, starting to panic just a little as Jordan gets nearer to him, her eyes wide open but looking straight past him.

“Jordie, hey.”

He grabs at her shoulders once she reaches him but she shrugs his hand away and steps past him just as Mason steps up beside him.

“Where you goin’ sweetheart?”

Mason asks, the sentence light hearted but Felix can hear a slight undertone of concern. Jordan still doesn’t reply and Felix stares at Mason for a moment before turning to watch her and then letting out a gasp.

Only a few feet away, somehow perfectly hidden in the shadows the trees’ canopy casts on the ground, is a person. Some kind of supernatural, more accurately. One that Felix doesn’t recognise. He isn’t sure how he managed to get so close without him or Mason knowing. He is short, a few inches shorter than Felix himself, with a long pale face adorned with pointy ears and mid length pale blue hair sticking straight up. If not for the sudden shock of seeing him standing there, Felix might make a joke about how much the hair resembled a troll doll, one of the strange fixations he’d had when first leaving the Echo World. He’d had dozens of them lining his shelves in his room at the Agency. Thick, perfectly shaped blue eyebrows sit above large black eyes and what looks like tattoos of symbols Felix doesn’t recognise are littered all over his face. He holds pale, slender arms out in front of him, emerging from a deep black cloak as though coming out of the darkness itself, and it takes Felix a moment to realise that he’s reaching for Jordan like he’s welcoming a hug from her. He’s smiling at her warmly, his face calm as he watches her stumble towards him, barefoot and no doubt freezing cold.

“What the fuck are you doing? You wanna get lost?”

Mason yells beside him and starts walking towards Jordan, breaking Felix out of the trance-like state he’s found himself in, just staring at this creature beckoning Jordan ever closer.

“Can you-”

Felix calls, jogging after him just as Mason places a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. The supernatural she is now only inches from moves his mouth silently and Jordan shakes Mason’s hand off and steps closer, the creature’s fingertips now brushing her bare shoulders as Adam’s coat falls to the ground.

“Hey, no!

Felix shouts, grabbing her roughly around the waist and tugging her away.

“You, hands off!”

He snaps at the supernatural, who just looks at him with the same calm smile on his face before his arms start to retreat back into his cloak.

“Who are you talking to?”

Mason gives him a strange look before Jordan starts fighting against Felix’s grip and he has to grab a hold of her legs to keep one of them from being kicked.

“Adam! Nate!”

Mason calls back in the direction of the tent, and it’s only a few seconds before they come to join them, looking in alarm between the two of them and Jordan.

“What’s she doing?”

Adam asks, his gaze fixed to Jordan as she thrashes against Mason and Felix for a few more seconds before suddenly going limp.

“There!”

Felix points frantically, almost dropping Jordan’s top half in the process and Adam and Nate both turn towards where the supernatural had been only a moment ago, only now there is nothing there.

“What’s there?”

Nate asks as Adam takes a few steps towards the brush, standing in the same spot the strange man had been standing in.

“There’s nothing there.”

He answers, turning back around and looking as though he’s about to question Felix further before his attention is stolen by Jordan starting to stir in Felix’s arms, waking up with a start when Mason notices too and drops her legs.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She asks, her voice still groggy with sleep and frowning at the four of them standing there staring at her.

“What the hell were  _ you  _ doing?”

Felix retorts, and she looks at him in confusion before pushing away from him and looking down at her barely dressed body.

“Okay look, I don’t know what kind of weird shit being in the forest at night brings out in you guys but I don’t want any part of it.”

She wraps her arms tightly around herself as she starts to shiver, and Felix watches as Adam retrieves his jacket from the ground and places it back over her shoulders as if on autopilot. She just glares at him in response, but lets Nate take her arm lightly and lead her back towards the tent. Mason shrugs and pulls another cigarette from the pack in his pocket, lighting up as he starts to walk away.

“Wait, did you not see that?”

Felix grabs his arm to stop him and gestures back towards where Adam is.

“See what?”

“The guy!”

“What guy?”

“There was a guy! A weird guy, he almost got a hold of her.”

Mason just looks at him for a long moment before exchanging a wary glance with Adam and shaking his head.

“I didn’t see any guy.”

He answers quietly before turning and walking back towards where he’d been keeping watch.

“I promise, I saw something.”

Felix says almost pleadingly, turning back to Adam.

“I believe you.”

He answers in an uncharacteristically gentle voice before heading back towards the tent. He pauses to pat Felix’s shoulder on the way past.

“We’ll talk with Jordan about it in the morning.”

He adds before disappearing, and Felix turns back towards the forest with a frown. How could Mason have not seen him? They were so close, he had his hands on Jordan. He scans the darkness for a long while, waiting for something to catch his eye, before finally letting out a sigh and turning back towards the tent, choosing now to sit beside the entrance, ready to grab Jordan the second she steps outside should she decide to wander off again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	6. Chapter 6

The sun is already high in the sky when Jordan starts to wake up, though the few spots of light that actually manage to filter through the trees all the way to the forest floor aren't doing much to warm the place up. She shivers as she sits up and reaches for her clothes, finally noticing that Adam's sitting at the other side of the tent watching her.

"Jesus are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"If I wanted to kill you there are much more efficient methods."

She frowns at him, unsure whether he's joking with her or stating an actual fact, but his expression gives nothing away.

"What are you doing?"

"Watching you."

"Watching me sleep?"

"Yes."

"Yeah that's not creepy at all."

"I didn't intend for it to be."

She sighs and wiggles her way out of the sleeping bag to start getting dressed.

"So why are you watching me anyway?"

She glances up at him as she slips her legs into her jeans then lifts up onto her knees to pull them up and button them.

"To ensure you didn't try to wander away again."

She pauses as she straightens her shirt and frowns.

"What?"

"I am unsure how else I can phrase that to help you understand."

"Why would I wander off?"

Realisation dawns on his face, clouded quickly by concern as he leans forward slightly.

"You do not remember getting up and trying to walk into the woods?"

She stares at him for a moment then rolls her eyes, quickly shrugging her jacket on and pulling on her boots.

"Very funny."

"I don't understand-"

"You know I was seriously starting to wonder if you knew what humour was, but that was good. Maybe leave it for when I'm not  _ already  _ low-key freaking out though, okay?"

She snaps before crawling out of the tent and away from him, only to come face to face with Felix. He's looking at her with one of the most serious expressions she's ever seen on him and it's making her nervous all over again.

"Really? First him, now you?"

"Are you okay?"

Jordan lets out a frustrated huff and throws her hands out to the sides.

"Alright can someone please tell me what's going on?"

Nate walks over to her and rests a hand gently on her arm, getting her attention.

"You left the tent last night and tried to follow something."

"Something?"

"A supernatural."

Felix interjects, and Jordan shoots him a look of confusion.

"No one else saw him."

He adds quietly, his eyes darting nervously around the rest of the group.

“So I got up to sleepwalk after something that doesn't exist?”

“No, Felix saw him, right in front of us. None of us could see him.”

Nate replies and Jordan frowns at Felix, confused.

“That’s weird, right?”

“Real weird.”

He confirms with a nod of his head and silence falls between the group for a moment until Adam clears his throat.

“We stay here. There’s obviously something to look into, it would be pointless to continue our search elsewhere.”

“Agreed.”

Nate nods and Jordan looks around their campsite with a groan, already bored.

\--

"I don't need a babysitter."

Jordan mutters, her attention fixed on the picture she's drawing in the damp dirt at her feet. Adam hasn’t left her alone all day. From earlier when she was teaching Felix how to play I Spy to her trying to go for a small walk earlier, Adam’s been right there. She would’ve considered pulling Mason aside out of sight somewhere and having him entertain her for a while away from the others, but Adam hasn’t given her a chance.

So she’s given up, now sitting on the smooth half of a stump jutting out of the ground where a tree has obviously fallen long ago, drawing random shapes in the dirt at her feet with a stick. And still, Adam is right beside her.

"I am not babysitting you."

"You haven't left me alone all day."

"If you want me to leave you alone you need only ask. I can keep watch over you from further away."

She doesn't answer, just continues moving the stick around in the dirt. There is no way, not a hope in  _ hell  _ that she's going to admit to him that she kind of likes having him hovering around. Is it annoying? Very much so. But the leader she has come to recognise is back and she’s not sure she’s ever felt safer than she does with him close by. They fall silent for a while until she finishes her drawing and ceremoniously drops the stick beside her.

"Check it out, it's you!"

She nudges his side with an elbow and nods toward the picture. He leans closer, narrowing his eyes to try and make sense of what she's drawn.

"What are those?"

He points and Jordan snorts back a laugh.

"Your arms."

"Why do they look like that?"

"Because you're buff."

She replies matter-of-factly, as though the answer should be obvious. He stares at it for a moment longer before shifting his gaze up to her face and she can't help but start laughing. He sighs heavily and leans back again, removing his sunglasses from the collar of his coat and slipping them over his eyes.

"Very amusing."

"I think so, I'm glad you agree."

They are quiet again for a while and Jordan leans on her hands behind her on the edge of the stump.

“So how long do you think we’re stuck here for?”

“As long as it takes to find what we’re looking for.”

“So if nothing happens today or tonight we can move on tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

She nods and clicks her tongue, trying to think of how to carry on the conversation. She doesn’t often spend long periods of time alone with Adam and she’s only just realising how difficult he is to talk to.

“Why do you suppose Felix saw this thing but no one else did?”

“I cannot be certain. Perhaps it is something to do with his increased perceptive ability.”

“Hm.”

He turns towards her all of a sudden and she can feel his eyes burning into her even through his sunglasses.

“I appreciate how difficult this situation may be for you and Mason. But I will not risk leaving you alone and having something happen to you.”

“You worried about me, Commanding Agent?”

She teases, and is somewhat surprised when he doesn’t answer straight away and turns his head away from her.

“I am worried about the mission. If you were to go missing we don’t know that the supernatural Felix saw would have a reason to return here.”

“So I’m bait?”

He pauses before answering carefully.

“You are valuable.”

“Right.”

She rolls her eyes and picks her stick back up, adding onto the drawing in front of her. She drops it again after a long and tense silence and gets to her feet.

“What is that?”

She turns to see Adam is leaning forward once again, inspecting the new addition to the picture.

“It’s me flipping you off.”

She answers shortly before walking away and going to join Nate and Felix.

\--

It’s been a boring and yet somehow long and exhausting day and Jordan has never been more thankful to be able to go to bed alone. All four of the vampires are keeping watch tonight, all of them seemingly worried that she’s going to get up again and try to disappear in her sleep. All except Mason, who had only given her a short salute as he lit a cigarette when she’d announced she was going to bed. He might not like her much, he might not particularly care about her, but she feels safe knowing that he’s out there with everyone else all the same.

He’s very good at keeping their personal and professional relationships separate, and while he’s not in bed with her she’s nothing more than another member of the unit but she knows that whether they like each other or not, she can trust him with her life.

"So who's gonna catch me if I go walkies again?"

She calls out of the tent, and straight away she hears Adam groan.

"Whoever is closest."

He replies, and she rolls her eyes to herself.

"I wanna hear some eenie meenie miney moe."

"What's that?"

Felix asks.

"Only the best way to make decisions."

She calls back and she hears another groan, a collective one this time.

"Jordan, no."

Nate scolds.

"You're explaining this to me tomorrow, Jordie."

"Of course I am, honey."

"Just go to sleep."

Mason snaps from somewhere further in the distance and Jordan chuckles to herself before snuggling down further into her sleeping bag and closing her eyes.

\--

Every noise has Adam's heart thumping and Mason can practically feel the fear radiating off of him from where he's standing at least ten feet away. It's not something he's used to sensing from Adam, at least not since Murphy. He's sure he saw this same kind of fear in Adam when Jordan was kidnapped, and again when they'd finally found her and thought for a serious and long moment that she wasn't going to make it after the fight.

He doesn't know what to make of it. Jordan is a human, and a rather small one at that, but Mason isn't sure that that's reason enough for Adam to be so worried, so  _ afraid  _ of something happening to her.

Perhaps it's just the guilt that the Commander feels over Jordan getting kidnapped at all. It's no secret to any of them that Adam still considers that one of his personal failures, so Mason supposes it makes sense that he'd be on high alert around her at least for a little while; until he feels that he's redeemed himself.

There's movement from the tent and Mason looks over to see Jordan emerging, barefoot and undressed just like she was the night before, her eyes wide open. Before he can say anything Adam has one arm wrapped around her waist from behind, preventing her from getting any further. He watches as she starts to thrash and fight against him and Adam moves his other arm around her to keep her still. If not for the current situation Mason might have something amusing to say about the fact that Adam is bear hugging the Detective from behind, but the sound of Felix shouting distracts him from even properly thinking about it himself.

\--

“Over here!”

Felix yells, turning to see Mason and Nate both turn to look at where he’s pointing, only for Mason to lift his hands to the side and shrug, indicating that he can’t see anything. Felix huffs in frustration, looking from the other members of his unit back to the mysterious supernatural a few times before jogging away from the others and into the woods.

“Felix!”

He hears Mason calling after him but ignores it. If no one else can even see the thing, then it’s going to have to be up to Felix to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Knowledge that would normally make him nervous; he’s not usually one to take the lead in situations such as this. But he can’t let himself think like that. This time it’s quite literally all up to him.

The creature starts to fade away into the black behind it like it had the previous night but Felix takes a deep breath and continues stepping towards it, relieved to find that it doesn’t somehow completely disappear like he’d feared, it simply tries to retreat into its cloak, rendering it almost invisible in the darkness.

“What do you want?”

He asks, his voice surprisingly unwavering and authoritative.

“I knew you were coming.”

The answer comes after a moment, the voice as pleasant and calming as the creature’s smile somehow manages to be.

“What do you want?”

Felix repeats, fighting against taking a startled step back when the supernatural emerges from it’s cloak, smiling at him.

“You are not like the others, I knew you were here the moment you stepped foot in my forest.”

_ “Your  _ forest?”

“My forest.”

It’s smile grows into a wide grin, suddenly looking less friendly.

“The one you travel with, the human. She too is unlike others of her kind.”

It continues when Felix doesn’t answer, and a frown crosses his face.

“You can’t hurt her.”

“Hurt her? No. There will be no pain. There is never any pain.”

“You can’t  _ have  _ her.”

The creature’s smile turns slightly sad and it reaches a pale hand up to stroke cold fingers down Felix’s jaw, making him shiver. It leans in close, freezing breath ghosting over his face as it whispers.

“I am Erlking, vampire. You think you can stop me?”

Felix shifts uneasily as Erlking pulls it’s hand back and retreats back into its cloak before he can answer, and he takes a few uncertain steps forward again only to find that it’s gone.

\--

Confusion doesn't even begin to describe what Jordan feels as she starts to wake up, the process sped up by the fact that she's freezing cold, half naked outside  _ again,  _ but this time large and defined arms encircle her and it feels like she has a warm brick wall pressed to her back.  _ Adam. _

It takes her a few seconds to realise she must have been fighting him like she'd woken up fighting Felix and Mason the night before because her top has ridden up and one of Adam's hands is under it, almost grasping one of her breasts. She tilts her head back to look at him and arches an eyebrow.

"Are you finished?"

He appears surprised to see her awake.

"Finished?"

"Did you get your hands on what you were looking for?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You're groping me right now, Adam."

His eyes widen and he abruptly lets go of her, clearing his throat as she fixes her shirt back down.

"I apologise-"

He begins, but before he can say anymore Felix jogs over, eyes wide.

“I spoke to it. It wants her.”

He nods towards Jordan just as Mason steps up beside Felix and punches him in the back of the shoulder.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing disappearing into the damn trees like that?”

“I had to follow it! None of you can even see it…”

Felix defends before turning back to Jordan, a sad look crossing his face.

“It says it wants you and we can’t stop it. It says this is its forest.”

Jordan just stares at him, arms wrapping around herself and shivering, before shaking her head and turning to disappear back into the tent.

“I want one of you at the door all night, and tomorrow I want to go home.”

She snaps as she snuggles back into her sleeping bag, although she knows there’s no way she’s going back to sleep.

Children or virgins, that’s what Nate had said. She was neither of those things, so what would this supernatural want with her? It has to be the blood, it has to have something to do with what Murphy had done to her, that’s the only explanation. She runs her fingers over the scars in her wrist absentmindedly, a shiver running through her as the memory of being strapped down in Murphy’s lab washes over her.

She’s lost in her own thoughts when something touching her shoulder makes her jump, and she opens her eyes to see Adam sitting beside her once again. She’d been so distracted she didn’t even hear him come in.

“We cannot leave. Not now that we know there is something here.”

He says quietly after a moment, a hint of sympathy in his voice but nowhere near enough to make her feel better about what he’s saying.

“I know.”

She agrees reluctantly. Of course, he’s right. Now that there is indeed something out here most likely causing the disappearances of all these children, there’s more reason than ever for them to stay.

“You will not be alone. Not for a moment, I’ll make sure of it.”

He adds, his voice infinitely gentler than she’s ever heard it before, followed by rustling as he leaves her alone in the tent again. He’s  _ such  _ an asshole, so short and abrupt all the time, but somehow his words have filled her with comfort and without even realising it, his brief reassurance lulls her back to sleep.

\--

Nate stands a few metres away from the tent, watching as Adam slowly emerges from it only to stand at full attention right beside the entrance, eyes narrowed as he scans their surroundings. He sighs and turns his own focus back towards the woods around them. He has a feeling that this mission is going to change a lot. Change things in a way that they may never return to normal, and he’s not sure if it’s a good thing or not.

Felix’s behaviour has been beyond unusual since they arrived in the Black Forest, and the idea of him being the only one of them who can see the creature they’re seeking and therefore is most likely the one they will all need to rely on fills him with worry. He loves Felix like a younger brother, but it is no secret within the Unit that he does not thrive on being put in charge.

Perhaps more worrying though is Adam’s behaviour. Nate has known for some time that there are feelings for Jordan brewing within his oldest friend. Feelings that would threaten to take over everything that Adam knows were they to ever come to the surface. Part of him wishes that they would; he wants happiness for his friend and despite their often hostile relationship, he feels that Jordan would bring him that if he would only let her in properly. Another part of him knows why Adam is hesitant, though. It’s true that strong connections such as the one he suspects Adam and Jordan would share can be a distraction in their line of work. He knows that when Adam feels, he feels deeply and so far it has already subtly clouded his judgement on this mission. He wonders how big the change in Adam would be if their feelings for each other were to become fully realised, he wonders if Adam would continue to be such an effective leader.

“C'est la vie.”

He murmurs to himself with a heavy sigh. He also knows that it would be akin to an avalanche. Once Adam starts realising it for himself the situation would snowball and Adam would be buried before he even realised he had started falling, and there’s not a thing any of them would be able to do to stop it. He realises with both sadness and optimism that all any of them - Adam and Jordan included - can do is hold on tight and hope for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a day late, but I'm here!!
> 
> I'm not gonna give a full content warning but there's possibly slight NSFW at the end.

The sun has barely risen high enough to bring any real light down to the ground when a shuffling at the entrance of the tent wakes Jordan up. She's tired, and sore, and miserable. Usually a fairly heavy sleeper, tossing and turning and being startled awake by every little noise after the events of last night have taken their toll on her. She's never been so grateful to have not much to do.

Mason flops down beside her, the breath he huffs out blowing the hair on his face into the air above him.

"Break?"

"Break."

He answers shortly, both of them quietly staring at the roof of the tent for a moment before simultaneously looking at each other.

"You alright?"

His question surprises her; it's no secret to anyone that he doesn't particularly care about her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugs and looks away from her again.

“It’s been a weird week.”

“Yeah I guess.”

They both fall silent for a long while again, and Jordan’s half waiting for him to make a move, trying to decide whether or not she’s willing to go along with it if he does. But when he doesn’t after a while she sits up and starts getting dressed, noticing that his eyes linger on her legs before she pulls her jeans up over them, yet he still doesn’t move to touch her.

The uncharacteristic behaviour might bother her normally, but given how different everyone’s been acting for the past few days, she reasons that it would probably be weirder if he was acting like his normal self. It’s probably for the best anyway she thinks as she finishes pulling her jacket on, deciding that for probably the same reason that had put her off last time - whatever that reason is - she probably wouldn’t have been willing to go along with it after all.

\--

Mason watches her go, a small frown settling on his face. It’s all starting to make sense to him now. Adam’s fear, his heart speeding up  _ just  _ enough to be noticeable whenever Jordan’s around, not to mention he can just about feel the concern and sadness pouring out of Nate whenever he’s nearby. It’s unbelievable; literally, Mason is struggling to believe it even though the signs are glaringly obvious now that he’s stopped for long enough to notice them.

Adam has feelings for her.

In all the time Mason’s known their leader, he’s never known him to act the way he does around Jordan. Never has he been so afraid for someone else’s safety, never has he so willingly doted on a person’s protection and well being as he has been on Jordan’s all day. He’s never seen his eyes soften the way they sometimes do when she doesn’t know he’s watching her.

He racks his brain for a different explanation, because the idea of Adam having feelings for a  human woman  sounds ridiculous, but he can’t think of anything else that lines up.

He’s done with Jordan, he knows it in the very back of his mind. If there’s any chance that Adam has real feelings for her, if there’s even a remote chance of Jordan returning those feelings, he knows he needs to be done. Just the mere thought of him casually sleeping with someone that his friend and leader cares for makes him sick to the stomach and had put him off of making a move this morning. He only hopes that whatever feelings Adam has, they are new. He hopes that Adam hasn’t spent the past few months having to watch him and Jordan together.

\--

Adam's nose wrinkles as he walks past the tent and hears a hushed conversation between Mason and Jordan, assuming that they’re just starting something that he’d rather not think about. He's on the verge of giving up, his lectures are evidently falling on deaf ears. He supposes he will just have to learn to deal with it.

But he doesn't  _ want  _ to deal with it. In fact, now that he's heard them in the act more than once, his skin almost crawls at the thought of her being touched in such a way by someone not emotionally invested in her, and he doesn't understand why. He tries to do away with the sensation by telling himself that perhaps Mason feels more for her than he lets on, but somehow that's almost just as bad.

He shifts his attention to Felix, pacing up and down at the edge of the clearing they've set up camp in, deliberately forcing his thoughts to focus on the young vampire. Once again he doesn't seem himself, his hands are clasped together in front of him, fingers fidgeting nervously. Adam can't help but feel for him. How great the burden must be to someone unused to it, to be the only one among them remotely capable of leading this mission. He imagines he probably feels as lost as Adam himself does, knowing that he is virtually powerless against an enemy he cannot even see.

Nate steps up beside him and they stand quietly together for a moment before movement from the tent catches Adam’s attention, and to his surprise Jordan is stumbling out in her usual early morning clumsy way. Perhaps she and Mason had not been about to do what he’d thought they were. He lets out a quiet and relieved sigh, and then tenses when he remembers Nate standing beside him.

"You know I don't like to pry in your personal matters, Adam."

Nate begins and Adam turns to face him, a small smile playing on his lips.

"And yet that is exactly what you're about to do."

Nate smiles, but the expression quickly fades before he subtly jerks his head towards the tent.

"Jordan."

"What about her?"

Nate sighs,  _ almost  _ in exasperation, something Adam has not often seen in the years he's known him.

"Do you think I haven't noticed the way your heart speeds up when she's near? The way you look at her? The way you struggle to keep your composure while witnessing her and Mason?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"We have known each other for a long time, old friend."

“A very long time, yes.”

“I’m a touch insulted that you don’t believe that I know you well enough to be able to see the reactions she provokes in you, or what they mean.”

Adam doesn’t know what to say to that. It’s true that Nate knows him better than anyone else, but he had thought his reactions had been small and insignificant enough to remain unnoticed.

“Whatever  _ reaction  _ you think she causes in me is irrelevant.”

He answers finally, and Nate rests a hand on his shoulder with another sigh, this one sad.

“The change it’s causing in you is entirely relevant. To all of us, but especially to her.”

Adam looks around them for a moment and notices that Jordan has gone, and his heart clenches painfully in his chest when he realises that she’s more than likely gone back into the tent with Mason. He’s suddenly aware that he’s proving Nate’s point entirely so he shakes it off and glances back at him.

“Even if what you are saying was true, what would you suggest I do about it?”

Nate gives him a soft smile, recognising that he isn’t asking a rhetorical question, rather subtly asking for advice.

“I would suggest that you speak with her.”

Adam nods dismissively and Nate’s hand slides off of his shoulder.

“You deserve happiness as much as the rest of us, Adam. And if Jordan is the person you can find it with, then you owe it to yourself to tell her how you feel.”

Adam raises an eyebrow and Nate gives a small shrug.

“Or how you don’t feel.”

He adds, an attempt at pacifying whatever defensive reaction Adam might have to him bluntly stating that there are feelings to be admitted. He walks away after a moment when it becomes obvious that Adam isn't about to respond, leaving him to his thoughts and hoping that he can bring himself to realise that feeling something for someone is not the weakness that he seems to think it is.

Neither of them have noticed Jordan standing a few feet away from them, close enough to catch a few very revealing parts of their conversation.

\--

She wishes she could say that she takes what she overheard with a grain of salt, that she was able to brush off the possibility of Adam having, what? A  _ crush  _ on her? It’s absurd just to think about. So she tries not to think about it. She really,  _ really  _ tries. But her mind keeps wandering back to the snippet of conversation that she’d heard - something about Jordan being the person who could make Adam happy.

She stays away from him, carefully and obviously. She's imagining what she'd heard, she has to be. There's  _ no way  _ Adam du Mortain has any feeling other than contempt for her. She watches him from a distance as he disappears into the tent for his break and groans inwardly when she sees Nate's eyes dart between them. She knows what's coming.

Sure enough, once he's waited a few minutes to make sure Adam's not coming back out, Nate walks over to her. She debates quickly with herself about whether or not to let him know that she overheard part of their conversation, but almost immediately dismisses the idea as he approaches.

"How are you feeling?"

He asks casually, but she sees straight through it.

"Fine."

He frowns at her short answer before shifting a little closer to her.

"I would like to speak with you."

"About?"

"Mason."

Well, that was unexpected.

She gives him a nod and plonks down cross-legged on the ground, raising an eyebrow up at Nate who inspects the ground for a moment and then crouches down beside her, his elbows resting on his knees.

“So what’s up, Natey?”

She grins at him as she uses Felix’s nickname for him, trying to lighten the mood for herself after getting herself worked up over the fact that Nate might have been about to tell her something about Adam.

“I know that the subject of you and Mason has been a source of conflict between you and Adam.”

“Yes?”

“I’m afraid I agree with him.”

She looks over at him in surprise, and then frowns.

“With Adam?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?”

“Perhaps not.”

She sighs to  _ his  _ surprise and nods, seemingly to herself more than anything.

“I’ve not really been feeling it with him since we’ve been here.”

She’s staring at a small sapling poking up out of the dark dirt in front of her and doesn’t notice the small smile that appears on Nate’s face in response to her admission.

“Oh? Why is that?”

He presses and she glances over at him, furrowing her brow.

“I don’t know.”

Nate’s satisfied with the conversation, whatever her reasons. He could never bring himself to tell Jordan the whole truth, and even if he did he knew that Adam would never forgive him. Jordan deciding for herself that she didn’t want to continue her relationship with Mason had made this part easy. Now he just wonders how long it will take Adam to realise his feelings and do something about them.

\--

Adam has spent the day effectively avoiding the Detective. Luckily it seems as though she is doing the same thing, and though he doesn’t know why, he’s grateful as it’s made it infinitely easier on him. His conversation with Nate had made him beyond uncomfortable, and he knew that being near to her would only make it worse. Nate’s already suspicious of the way he feels about her, and despite what he had been willing to admit during their conversation earlier, he is well aware himself of the involuntary reactions his body throws out when she’s close.

He’s not sure whether he’s relieved when darkness starts to fall and he knows that Jordan will be retreating to the tent shortly, or whether he dreads it because he knows already that he’s not going to be willing to leave her. He briefly considers leaving Felix or Nate near to the tent to keep watch over her for the night, but the thought of being far from her when something is likely to happen to her makes his stomach churn uncomfortably.

"Someone needs to remain close to the tent to ensure the Detective does not get away."

He announces vaguely, hoping that someone else gives him an out and offers to watch her. He waits for a response, but the rest of Unit Bravo just look back at him before Felix shrugs.

"You did better at stopping her than me and Mason."

"Mason and I."

Nate corrects absentmindedly, and Felix rolls his eyes at him. Realisation dawns on Nate's face and he gives a single yet enthusiastic nod.

"I agree it should be Adam."

He fights the urge to glare at Nate; he knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s decidedly unhappy with it. Before he can offer an alternate choice and explanation they all start wandering away to their respective sentry points, seemingly happy with the decision that he feels has been made without him. He’s losing control and he doesn’t like it, and he finds himself blaming Jordan and her effect on him.

He releases a heavy sigh, resigned to his fate and clasps his hands behind his back, trying to ignore the shuffling sounds coming from inside the tent, trying to keep the images of what Jordan might be doing in there out of his head. He’s unsuccessful though and with every movement that he hears her make he pictures her fidgeting relentlessly as she tries to get comfortable enough to sleep. It’s infuriating. She simply never stops moving. He clasps his hands together more tightly when the noise stops and he knows that she’s abruptly fallen asleep. Again, infuriating. She is an extremely heavy sleeper, he knows from the few nights he and Nate spent in the tent with her.

She squirms endlessly, making it impossible for anybody unfortunate enough to be close to her while she’s falling asleep to get any rest, and then she’s impossible to awaken. What would happen if something happened during the night and they required her assistance? The knowledge that the alarm on her mobile phone succeeds in waking her up baffles him.

He can still picture her, probably sprawled out on her stomach, probably taking up her sleeping space and half of the two on either side of her. Nate’s wrong about the feelings he assumes Adam has - he has to be. She is irritating, and strangely self-assured for no reason. She is a  _ human.  _ If Adam were to ever fall for a  _ human,  _ it would have to be one more remarkable than the one in the tent behind him. The one he can see in his mind as he continues to picture the way she looks when she sleeps until  Felix shouting from the other side of the clearing snaps his attention quickly away from the pictures in his mind.

“Mason! There! Do you see him?”

Adam takes a small step away from the tent, but then hesitates. If the supernatural supposedly after Jordan is around, it would probably be unwise for him to step too far away from her- from the  _ tent. _

He listens carefully, Mason’s hurried footsteps coming to a stop and Adam holds his breath in wait of his reaction. He lets it out in disappointment when he hears it.

“I can’t see anyone.”

He sounds as defeated as Adam feels, and it brings to light the issue that’s been plaguing him since Felix’s first encounter with the Erlking. How can he be of any use to the rest of his team if he’s unable to even see the thing they are up against?

\--

_ Go to sleep. You have four literal vampires standing guard, just go to sleep. _

No matter how many times Jordan repeats it to herself, it doesn't work. She wants to be restless because of Erlking. She wants to be freaking out over it, but as much as she tries to convince herself that she's scared, she knows that she isn't. She trusts the four men outside with her life - literally - and as far as the mission goes she feels relatively calm.

She's restless because of Adam, caught somewhere between wanting to march out and lead him back into the tent with her and wanting to march out and slap him across the face. Or possibly both. She can't remember ever feeling this confused before. She's outraged at the possibility that Adam's been hiding this and being so…  _ Adam  _ towards her. She's angry, but at the same time she finds that her mind keeps wandering.

She tries to imagine what it would feel like to reach for him and not have him pull away. She tries to picture what it would be like to make him laugh (were that even a possibility) or what they'd do with their time together if they ever spent any time together outside of a mission.

Her cheeks flush as she tries to picture what it would be like to sleep with him. She wonders what it would take to make him relax, to get him excited. Her eyes fall closed to help create the image and she barely even registers one hand slowly making its way down her body until she touches herself, the small sigh she lets out jerking her out of her imagination and making her quickly pull her hand away.

"What the fuck?"

She groans under her breath, rolling onto her side and curling into a ball. No  _ fucking  _ way does she like Adam. Maybe it’s a good thing that she hasn’t spoken to Mason about not continuing with their arrangement anymore, maybe he has been good for her. Maybe he was what was keeping her from realising that-  _ shit. _

She has feelings for her Commanding Agent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	8. Chapter 8

She just can’t bring herself to face him, not after what she’d overheard yesterday. She still isn’t sure that she heard right, or even if she did that she believes it; it all just seems a little too far fetched. It doesn’t help though that he seems to have the same idea of avoiding her. It makes her wonder what his reason for doing so could be, which brings her back to thinking about what Nate had said. Of course, that’s before she reminds herself that Adam does not in fact like her very much. It makes perfect sense for him to not want to be around her unless he needs to be. And while they’re stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing really to do but wait for Erlking to make a real appearance, she supposes he has no real need to be.

She’s spent the day goofing off with Felix, and at times like these she actually enjoys being in the middle of the forest with Unit Bravo. It’s peaceful during the day, the rustles that she hears can be easily explained away as wind moving past branches and the shadows are less eerie thanks to the sunlight peeking through the leaves above. Felix is cheerier during the day too, which helps her own mood a great deal. As the sun begins to go down each day he becomes more anxious, and it’s strange to see him acting that way.

She and Felix are sitting cross legged on the ground facing each other while she teaches him patty cake. Partly because she’s bored and it’s fun watching Felix cackle whenever he misses her hand, partly because she knows that doing something ultimately childish is sure to keep Adam away from her, but  _ mostly  _ because the look Mason is giving them from where he’s leaning against a tree a few metres away is nothing short of hilarious.

“Are you two gonna be done with that soon?”

He asks after Felix pulls his hands away quickly with a grin, causing Jordan to fall forwards into his lap when she tries to clap hers against them and resulting in both of them bursting out with laughter.

“Why, you want a go?”

Jordan asks, holding her hands up to him in offer and raising an eyebrow. He just scowls at her, dropping his finished cigarette to the ground in front of him and crushing it out with his boot before deliberately turning away from the both of them. She turns her attention back to Felix, startling when she sees Adam standing behind him and staring straight at her. She opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out, and Felix casts a confused glance between the two of them.

“Should I leave?”

He jokes, but there’s a note of seriousness to his voice that confuses Jordan even more. Does he know something she doesn’t? Or something that she does and just refuses to fully acknowledge?

“Not necessary. I just wanted to check that the Detective is not worrying herself over what has happened to her these past few nights.”

The statement is directed to Felix, though his eyes remain fixed on her and she shifts uncomfortably under his stare. Felix stands up slowly, grinning at Jordan and giving her a wink that she doesn’t understand before moving away from them. She stares up at Adam, waiting for him to say more for a long while before realising that he’s waiting for her answer.

“I’m fine.”

She answers quietly, and he gives a stiff nod in return.

“It would do you well to remain cautious, but there is no need to dwell. I -  _ we  _ \- will ensure that nothing happens to you.”

“Is that really all you wanted to say?”

She blurts out before she can stop herself, kicking herself when he frowns at her.

“What else would you like me to say?”

She shakes her head and looks away from him, unable to answer the question. She can’t ask any of the questions swirling around in her head without letting him know that she heard him and Nate. And she can’t tell him any of her thoughts, not when she doesn’t even understand them herself at the moment.

“Nothing.”

She finally answers, expecting him to walk away. To her surprise he sits down in Felix’s place and she almost laughs at the sight of him sitting on the ground with her. She holds it back, but she feels her lips turn up into an amused smile as she watches him try to get comfortable.

“Is something amusing?”

“It’s just funny to see you acting like a normal person for once.”

She gestures to where he’s sitting, and he glances down at himself as though only just realising that he’s joined her on the ground.

“I’m hardly a normal person though, am I?”

He’s smiling when he looks back up at her. Actually smiling. Not a slight quirk at the corners of his mouth, but an actual smile. Her attention is drawn to his cheeks, discovering that she hadn’t been imagining things when they’d first arrived here and she thought she’d spotted dimples. She clasps her hands together to keep at bay an overwhelming urge to reach out and poke them.

“You have dimples.”

She states, and his face snaps back to its usual expression almost instantly.

“What?”

“Your cheeks, when you smile. You have dimples. I’ve never really seen them before.”

“I suppose there’s not been an abundance of reasons to smile in the time that we’ve known one another.”

She nods, knowing that he’s right. She knows that she definitely hasn’t had as much fun since her promotion to Detective.

“Well I don’t know what’s brought it on now but you should do it more. It suits you.”

He smiles again, this one smaller, as though he’s trying to hold it back.

“Perhaps I have recently found something worth smiling about.”

He seems to regret the words the instant they leave his mouth, and he switches back his usual stern expression before abruptly getting to his feet. His gaze lingers on her for a moment, almost as though he wants to say something else, but then changes his mind and walks away, leaving Jordan frowning after him.

_ What the hell was that? _

\--

Adam stalks away from Jordan, willing himself not to look back over his shoulder at her as he stops just outside of the clearing their camp is in, away from where he can feel Jordan’s stare burning into him. What on  _ earth  _ is he thinking? He cannot afford to say things like that to her. He cannot risk the possibility - no matter how small - that she might say something similar in response. He’s starting to become uncertain of how successful his attempts at restraining himself would be if she showed interest in him, and it makes him uneasy. He doesn’t like not knowing how something will affect him.

He also cannot risk pushing her further away than she already is should he cross a line and say something that may upset her. He justifies it to himself that he can’t be the cause for a disruption of that magnitude among the unit. There’s already too much tension between Jordan and himself, enough that there is too much time being wasted on them arguing with each other or being unwilling to speak to each other. He will not be the reason it all gets worse.

He refuses to acknowledge the other reason lurking in the back of his mind; the fact that he doesn’t know how he would live with himself if he were to be the reason she requested a transfer to a different unit just to be away from him. The idea of never seeing her again is bad enough, even worse if he were the reason why.

He spins around when he hears movement behind him, visibly relaxing when he sees Felix stumbling through the brush to get to him.

“You are not subtle, Felix.”

He comments with an arched eyebrow, and Felix gives him a strange look.

“Neither are you.”

“I am not trying to be.”

“Sure you are. You think no one notices, but I do. Nate does. Mason’s starting to. Even she’s starting to see it.”

Adam lets out an exasperated sigh and folds his arms over his chest.

“What are you talking about?”

Felix grins at him until Adam’s slight frown turns into a scowl and then he sighs and rolls his eyes.

“You should talk to Mason.”

Is the only response he offers before starting to turn and head back to the camp.

“Talk to Mason about what?”

His heart thumps a little louder in his chest and he curses it, knowing that Felix can hear it just as clearly as he can. The knowledge is confirmed when the younger vampire smiles over his shoulder at him.

“He won’t care, and you know he won’t get in your way. You know he’d end it in a second if you wanted him to.”

Felix walks away before Adam can protest what he’s hinting at, and Adam thinks that maybe that’s for the best. He isn’t sure how to go about denying something truthful, not to the three people who know him sometimes better than he knows himself.

\--

The five of them are huddled in a circle by the side of the tent as the sun finishes it’s descent, discussing their plans for the night. It’s significantly colder than any of their nights here so far and Jordan can feel Mason almost vibrating beside her, his jacket closed all the way up to his chin and his collar turned upwards against the cold. His arms are crossed tightly around himself and he’s still shivering.

“You good?”

She nudges him gently with an elbow and he scowls over at her.

“Fan-fucking-tastic.”

His response is laced with sarcasm and she rolls her eyes and looks away from him. He really is a dick sometimes.

“So what do I do if I see this guy again?”

Felix asks, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet a little to try and warm himself up. Even Nate is hunched up against the cold - only Adam seems to be unaffected though Jordan knows that can’t be true. He’s just better at  _ appearing  _ unaffected by things, she supposes.

“You call us.”

“What if I go after him?”

Felix offers in suggestion, and all three vampires turn towards him in surprise before Adam shakes his head.

“Absolutely not.”

“I’ve probably got the best chance of catching him, right?”

“He’s got a point.”

Mason stammers out, slowly unfurling his arms from around himself and fishing a cigarette out of his pocket. His hands are shaking as he tries to light it, and Jordan snatches the lighter from him, cupping one hand around the cigarette and striking the lighter with the other. He glares at her before plucking his lighter back out of her hand and stashing it in his pocket.

“Thanks.”

He mutters half heartedly, and Jordan knows that’s probably the closest to appreciation or gratitude she’s going to get from him. Something has changed between her and Mason, but she can’t pick what it is. He hasn’t said one suggestive thing to her all day, whereas usually she struggles to get through an hour in his presence without some kind of innuendo coming her way.

It’s somehow easier to get along with him this way though. Without the pressure of the sexual tension that’s been hovering between them since she met him, she can actually appreciate his personality a little more. She’d seen the slight glint of affection in his eyes when she’d lit his cigarette for him - despite his characteristically grumpy response, something she would probably have missed if she’d just been picturing him naked or thinking about all the ways in which she could warm him up.

For a short while there she’d thought that it had been a good thing that she’d been sleeping with him, because she was unsure that she’d like  _ anything  _ about him if not. For the first time she starts to wonder if maybe their sexual relationship was preventing her from getting to know him properly. Maybe Adam had been right all those times he’d told them that their unconventional relationship was a bad idea.

“- is irrelevant. No one is to meander off into the woods alone.”

Adam is finishing his lecture to Felix when Jordan finally brings her attention back to him, and she inwardly begs him to hurry up and finish this impromptu meeting so that she can escape to the warmth of the tent. She almost feels bad for the four of them being stuck outside in this temperature, but she also knows that she’d be practically no use to them if she tried to join them. In fact with the way she’d been attempting to wander off at night she’d probably be more of a hindrance than anything else.

\--

It takes her a while to get to sleep, on edge and nervous as she has been the last few nights. Mason, Felix and Adam are positioned at different areas of the camp, keeping an eye on the forest. Nate has stayed at the tent tonight, Adam has decided that it’s necessary for one of them to remain close to her at all times so as to be able to stop her before she gets lost in the woods if she sleepwalks again. She can hear him humming quietly to himself as she starts to drift off, that and the quiet murmuring of the others checking in with each other every so often somehow the most comforting white noise she’s heard in awhile.

\--

The first thing she hears as she starts to wake up is shouting, and it takes her a moment to realise that she is once again out of the tent. This time it’s Nate that has a hold of her, one arm wrapped around her midsection and just about lifting her up off of the ground to keep her from getting away from him. She stops struggling and Nate glances down, carefully letting go of her when he realises she’s awake. He gives her a quick once over and shrugs his jacket off, wrapping it around her when he notices her shivering violently.

“What’s going on?”

She asks, still groggy from sleep. Nate shrugs, his face twisted with worry as he turns away from her to scan the forest again.

“Agent Hauville! Felix!”

She hears Adam shouting, the frantic sound of it making her stomach flip and she takes a small step forward. Nate grabs her arm and holds her back.

“We can’t just stand here!”

She protests, glaring back at him and his eyes dart between her and the darkness before her, obviously conflicted himself about what to do.

“Adam instructed me to stay with you and keep you here.”

He answers, his resolve wavering even as he speaks. Footsteps rush towards them and Nate yanks on her arm, making her stumble behind him just as Mason comes into view. He glances at Jordan, relief flickering across his face for a split second before it gives way to concern again.

“What’s happened?”

Nate asks, clearly seeing the same thing in Mason’s face that Jordan sees.

“Felix is gone.”

Mason answers, glancing over his shoulder when Adam storms back towards them.   


“I tried to stop him-”

“It’s not your fault.”

Nate cuts in before Adam can get any further, reaching out to rest a hand on his shoulder. Adam looks unconvinced despite the short nod he gives his friend.

“I’m gonna punch the little shit right in the face when he comes back.”

Mason grumbles, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it. His hands are no longer shaking, and Jordan can tell his worry for Felix is outweighing his dislike for the cold.

“We have to go and find him.”

He says decidedly through a cloud of smoke, shoving his lighter back into his pocket and starting to walk away.

“No.”

He pauses and looks over his shoulder at Adam.

“What do you mean no?”

“He’s fast, and he’s chasing something none of us can see. It would take all of us and I will not leave the Detective here on her own.”

“She can come.”

“She would hold us up and you know it.”

“You guys realise I’m right here, right?”

Jordan steps up between them, shaking her arm free of Nate. Mason rolls his eyes and Adam shakes his head, resignation written all over his face.

“We don’t know that we can keep you safe if you were to go into the forest. Particularly if we become preoccupied with finding Felix.”

Mason huffs and steps closer to Adam as well, both he and Jordan standing either side of him and glaring at him.

“We wait for tonight. He is perfectly capable of looking after himself and he’s perceptive and fast enough to escape if not. In addition, he may come back yet. We will revisit in the morning if he hasn’t returned.”

Nate gives a nod, glancing between Jordan and Mason carefully.

“It’s the best plan for all of us.”

“Yeah, except Felix.”

Mason mutters, trudging back to his sentry post and glaring out towards the forest.

“I’m not useless, you know. If this thing has its sights set on me then maybe all of us going after them - including me - would help.”

“I will not use you as bait.”

Adam dismisses Jordan’s suggestion almost sooner than she’s finished speaking, and she raises an eyebrow at him.

“You think I can’t handle it?”

“That is not what I said.”

“But it’s what you meant.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth, Detective Mills. I said I am unwilling to use you as bait, not that I don’t believe that you could handle yourself. Yet the fact remains that you  _ are  _ significantly weaker than us. Your presence would be a distraction.”

“Excuse me?”

Adam frowns, seeming to realise that what he’d said isn’t what he’d meant to say.

“Whatever.”

Jordan mutters before turning her back on him. She shrugs Nate’s jacket off and hands it back to him before disappearing back into the tent.

“It’s the best plan we’ve got.”

Nate reassures him before walking away, taking Adam’s previous place and leaving him beside the tent. Adam looks between the tent, where he can hear Jordan shuffling around inside again as she tries to get back to sleep, and the spot where Felix had been standing before deciding to stay where he is by the tent.

Mason and Nate have watch duty covered, he justifies to himself. Someone needs to stay close enough to make sure Jordan doesn’t do anything stupid. It’s as good of a reason as any.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one's late, I've had a few personal issues. The next one might be a few days late too due to Christmas and all but after that I should be back on track!

She’s barely slept, between worry for Felix and her mind going over and over what has happened between her and Adam over the past few days Jordan finds that her mind just won’t shut off for more than a few minutes at a time, leaving her with a broken sleep that makes her feel worse than if she’d just pulled an all-nighter with Unit Bravo.

She’s been laying there listening to the three of them talking for close to an hour. It started as a calm enough discussion but it’s now nearing full blown argument territory and she sighs to herself as she sits up and begins pulling her clothes on.

She shuffles tiredly out of the tent and the three of them turn to look at her. Adam has his arms folded over his chest and Mason stands only inches away from him, the scowl on his face giving away the fact that the arguing she’d heard was mostly between the two of them. Nate looks every bit the peacemaker, standing beside the both of them with a hand on either of their shoulders. It’s strange to Jordan to see Mason and Adam facing off like this; it’s usually Adam and Nate having a difference of opinion and more often than not Mason takes Adam’s side. She knows that Mason’s worried about Felix, but it seems as though this mission is changing almost everything about the dynamic within the Unit and she’s not sure how she feels about it.

“Will you please tell him that we can’t just leave Felix out there on his own?”

Mason looks at her almost pleadingly, and it’s just another strange occurrence to add to the list; Mason needing help from her enough to ask for it so desperately.

“We are not taking a vote. We stay put until this afternoon, and if by then Felix has still not returned we will discuss it again.”

Adam responds firmly before Jordan has a chance to get any words out, and both her and Mason glare at him. 

“I guess the master has spoken.”

She mutters as she turns and heads away from the three of them. She’s had far too little sleep and there’s far too much worrying her at the moment for her to be able to muster the energy needed to deal with Adam at his bossiest.

She tries not to think about what Felix might have encountered in the woods by himself all night, trying to reassure herself that Adam’s right. He’s the fastest and the most perceptive, there’s no reason to think anything untoward will have happened to him.

\--

Adam watches her go, a strange sensation making his stomach knot up as she does. He feels… guilty. He doesn’t like that he has disappointed her, or upset her, or whatever it is her ‘whatever’ means that he has done. And he doesn’t like that he doesn’t like it. He cannot be a real leader if he’s going to worry about  _ one  _ member of his unit not liking a decision that he has made. On top of that he’s not used to being bothered by what people think of him and the way he conducts himself and he can’t help but wonder why he’s so affected by her.

Except that he’s not really wondering, is he? He knows exactly why her opinion of him matters to him, but knowing it and being okay with it are two very different things and he is very much  _ not  _ okay with it.

A noise in the bushes beside them draws his attention and he notices both Mason and Nate readying themselves as he turns and does the same, just in time to see Felix jogging through the branches towards them, a grin on his face.

“Miss me?”

He asks as he comes to a stop in front of them, and before anyone can answer Mason punches him hard in the shoulder.

“What the hell?”

Felix laughs, rubbing half heartedly at his shoulder.

“I love you too, buddy.”

Mason growls and pulls a face before stalking off, muttering insults directed at Felix under his breath on the way. Before Felix can get too far or explain anything though Jordan flies back up to him, wrapping him up in a tight hug before pulling away and shoving him hard enough to make him stumble backwards.

“Do  _ not  _ do that again.”

“Do what? Run off after the bad guy in an attempt to save a damsel in distress?”

Jordan rolls her eyes and hits him again, this time a light slap across the face.

“Yeah, that.”

“Did you find anything out at least?”

Adam cuts into their conversation, trying his hardest to ignore the glare that Jordan shoots at him.

“Really? Do you even care that he was gone all night?”

“Of course I care.”

“Got a funny way of showing it, Commanding Agent.”

He lets out a frustrated sigh and tears his gaze away from her to face Felix properly.

“Are you alright, Felix?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s her soul.”

Felix waves away the question and Adam bites back the urge to point out to Jordan that his expression of concern had been unwarranted.

“Her soul?”

He asks instead and Felix nods, his eyes darting nervously to Jordan for a split second.

“He said that he’s been waiting for her, and that he knew it was her as soon as he smelled her.”

“According to legend, the only souls of use to the Erlking are that of children or virgins. Pure souls.”

Nate interjects, giving Jordan an apologetic glance which she shrugs away.

“He said hers is ‘unique’ and it…”

Felix trails off, seeming unwilling to continue his sentence in front of Jordan.

“And it what?”

Adam asks impatiently. There is no time to be sensitive to what they say in front of one another if they’re to have a chance at stopping this supernatural. He fears that things may have already gone too far by the fact that Erlking has been successful in luring Jordan out of the tent at night more than once. It could only be a matter of time before the pull is too strong for any of them to stop her.

“It uh, it would sustain him for years.”

“He wants to  _ eat  _ me?”   


Jordan exclaims, crossing her arms around herself and somehow shrinking herself further into her coat.

“Your soul.”

Adam corrects unhelpfully, and Nate frowns at his friend in exasperation before turning to Jordan.

“You’re safe with us, though. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Not being able to see him does present a challenge.”

Adam continues on, barely noticing Jordan’s discomfort and the look that Nate is giving him.

“Oh, about that. I can see him because I have a pure soul as well. And you guys don’t. Human born and all that.”

Felix cuts in.

“So there is no reason to think that Detective Mills won’t be able to see him if she were to wake up as she approached him?”   


“Well, I don’t know. He said that her soul is unique, not pure. Are you pure?”

Felix turns to Jordan with a small smirk on his face, and she grins in return and shrugs casually.

“This is not a joke!”

Adam raises his voice just slightly and they both turn back to him, their smiles fading.

“Regardless of whether she is able to see him or not, I’ve already stated that she will not be used as bait. We will have to find another way.”

“But I could-”

Adam holds a hand up to cut Jordan off before she can finish her sentence.

“We will find another way.”

“If one of you-”

“I said, we will find another way.”

Jordan just stares at him for a moment and he can tell that she’s fuming over being disregarded with such finality, but she seems to know any further argument on the matter would be pointless. Just the thought of deliberately sending her into harm’s way on the off chance that it could help them catch Erlking makes his stomach twist into a knot. He knows it’s probably the best shot they’ve got, but he finds that he’s completely unwilling to even entertain the idea enough to think it through properly.

Jordan eventually rolls her eyes and turns to walk away, linking her arm with Felix’s and dragging him along with her. Adam knows what’s coming before Nate even speaks and lets out a heavy sigh in anticipation.

“We may not think of another way. We may not have a choice.”

“There is always a choice.”

“I suppose, the other option would be to return home empty handed and explain to Agent Mills that we were unable to do what was necessary to complete our mission.”

“And you think she would approve of her daughter being used as a lure instead?”

“I can’t help but wonder Adam, if you are protective over Jordan because you don’t want to disappoint her mother or for a different reason altogether.”

Nate says quietly before patting Adam’s shoulder lightly and walking away. Adam watches after him with a frown on his face; not because he disagrees, but because it has suddenly dawned on him that this is why he was unwilling to acknowledge whatever feelings he may or may not have for Detective Mills in the first place.

\--

Adam is finishing another patrol around their campsite just as the sun is beginning to set when the rest of Unit Bravo meet him beside the tent, Jordan tagging along behind looking oddly hesitant. He eyes the four of them warily and waits for one of them to speak.

“We’ve had an idea.”

Felix breaks the tense silence and Adam raises an eyebrow.

“We?”

“Jordan and me.”

“Jordan and I.”

Nate corrects, and even Adam gives him a somewhat annoyed look at the interruption.

“Anyway, we were thinking-”

Felix begins but cuts himself off short, throwing Nate a helpless glance. But before the other vampire can speak Jordan straightens, takes a deep breath, steps forward and finishes his thought for him.

“We were thinking one of you could, you know. Feed. On me.”

“Excuse me?”

Of all the things he’d thought she was about to say, of all the insane plans that Jordan and Felix could have come up with, this one hadn’t even entered his mind.

“Absolutely not.”

He answers before anyone can explain themselves and he sees Felix’s shoulders fall but Jordan seems to stand up straighter beside him.

“You could at least hear us out.”

Adam raises an eyebrow at her and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Fine. Explain your reasons to me.”

“She’s got the blood.”

Mason points at her with a nod, and Adam realises that they must have already discussed this between them while he was checking their surroundings.

“I am aware."

“So, if one of you feeds, maybe there’s a chance it’ll give you enough of a boost to be able to see what Felix can see.”

Jordan finishes explaining and Adam shakes his head, repeating his first response.

“Absolutely not.”

“We thought you could start. Being the almighty leader or whatever.”

She adds, ignoring his refusal.

“Start?”

“Well, we thought if it all goes to plan with you, then…”

She pauses and looks around at Nate and Mason, who both avoid looking at both her and Adam.

“Well, then these two could, you know.”

Felix chuckles nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“You’re kind of making yourself sound like a keg.”

“We are absolutely not doing this. End of discussion.”

He shakes his head in disbelief that they would even suggest such a thing and starts to walk away from them, but a hand gripping onto his wrist stops him. He looks down at Jordan’s hand then back up at her just as she looks over her shoulder at the rest of them. Nate nods and leads Mason and Felix away, leaving them alone for a moment.

“You already have my answer, Detective.”

“Can you just stop being  _ you  _ for a minute and listen? This could help and you know it.”

“Whether or not it could help is irrelevant. I will not allow you to be used in the way that Murphy intended any more than I will allow you to be used as bait.”

He notices the shift in her posture, her mood, her everything at the mention of Murphy but she shakes it off and determinedly holds his gaze.

“This is completely different.”

“How?”

“Because I trust you. And because I’m asking you to do it.”

“You would trust me not to go too far and kill you? You would trust all of us that much? Literally with your life?”

“Yes.”

He studies her eyes carefully for a long while, trying to find a sign that she may be lying. He finds nothing but he can’t shake the unease that’s crawling through him at the thought of the three of them feeding from her.

Though at the same time, that same thought makes his eyes shift to her neck, the temptation too overwhelming for a split second for him to be able to hear anything other than her heartbeat for just a moment.

“You know it could help. You know we’ve got just as much chance with this as we do with anything else.”

“ _ That  _ is a last resort, and we are not at that stage yet.”

He replies after a slight hesitation, and then turns and walks away from her before she can say anything else to try and convince him. He cannot do this, he  _ will not  _ do this. The risk of one of them accidentally hurting her is too high, and none of them can be sure what effect Jordan’s blood will actually have on them. What if the boost in abilities brings with it an alteration of personality? What if the effect is not long lasting enough to do any good anyway, even if it works in the way they’re thinking it will. There’s no guarantee that it would make any of them be able to see Erlking.

He’s made the right decision, he’s sure of it.

\--

It’s barely even a surprise to Jordan by now when she wakes up outside, half naked in Adam’s arms again with Mason, Nate and Felix shouting amongst each other in the distance. She slumps in Adam’s hold and he loosens his grip, his hands sliding to her waist to steady her as she stands to hold her own weight before slipping away entirely. Before she can turn to face him his arms are wrapping his coat around her and she snuggles into it, looking over her shoulder at him. He’s already watching her, concern written all over his face before an especially loud shout draws his attention up to the woods around them. Felix and Nate are yelling frantically and Mason is running towards them.

“Felix got him!”

He calls from a slight distance before turning and running back, presumably to help. Jordan lets out a long sigh of relief at the realisation that their mission is most likely over once Erlking is in Unit Bravo’s custody, and perhaps they can go home soon and everything can get back to normal.

Adam takes a few steps away before turning to look back at her, and she can tell that he’s itching to go and help but torn between wanting to be of use to his team and not wanting to leave her alone.

She opens her mouth to tell him that she’s fine and he can go when suddenly everything goes quiet and he turns away again with a frown on his face.

“Nate?”

He calls hesitantly, and there’s no answer but a moment later they can hear footsteps and Nate, Felix and Mason are trudging back towards them looking utterly dejected.

“He’s strong, and fast. He got away.”

Felix mutters and Jordan thinks for a moment that he actually looks as though he’s about to start crying.

“We have to try something. This isn’t working, Felix being the only one that can see what we’re supposed to be getting hold of.”

Mason looks pointedly at Adam who shakes his head, still sticking to his resolve.

“We can come up with something else.”

Even Jordan can hear how much weaker the statement is now than when he said it earlier. She sees her opportunity and takes it, spinning around to face him and wrapping his coat around herself more tightly against the cold.

“I want it to be you. But if you’re going to keep refusing, I’m going to get Mason to do it anyway.”

“You cannot-”

“I can, and I will. It’s my blood, it’s my neck, it’s my life. I think I should be where the buck stops, don’t you?”

“You don’t know what it is that you’re agreeing to.”

“No? You think I was just doodling in the back pages of the books all that time Nate had me cooped up in the study?”

“Excuse me?”

“I read up on this after Murphy, Adam. I know the risks, I know what I’m agreeing to.”

“Why would you have felt the need to research this at all?"

She scoffs out a laugh and gestures around them.

“In case something like this ever came up! I’m gonna tell you one more time, I want you to do this.”

“Perhaps it would be best for Mason-”

“No. I want  _ you  _ to do this.”

Adam looks away from her, his eyes searching the rest of his teammates for their reactions and Jordan looks over her shoulder at them to see them watching him hopefully. She’s not stupid, she knows that it’s something none of them probably want to do, but at the same time something that they’ve probably all thought about doing at one time or another.

She knows that he’s starting to cave, she knows that the temptation that they’ve all spoken of is probably immense and is clouding his decision. He’s probably well aware of how much her blood could potentially help the mission, only making the temptation greater. But she knows that he also prides himself on the control that he has over his own urges so this is probably an incredibly difficult situation for her to put him in.

“We need something, and it is entirely possible that this could help.”

Nate pipes up from behind her and she’s relieved that at least one other person seems to openly have her back on this and is willing to help her convince Adam. Finally he sighs, resignation all over his face as he gives a stiff nod.

“You need to rest. You need to sleep on this and we’ll make a decision in the morning if you still feel that this is the path you wish to take.”

He tells her quietly and she gives him a small smile before shrugging his jacket off. She hands it back to him and retreats into the tent to try and get the rest that she now knows she’s probably going to need desperately in preparation for tomorrow.

She isn’t sure why she’s so insistent that it be Adam who does this, but he was the first person she thought of when Felix had first (mostly jokingly) brought up the idea. He’s an asshole, there’s no question of it in her mind, but she’s only just realising that despite that he’s the one that she trusts the most out of Unit Bravo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	10. Chapter 10

Jordan hadn't been expecting to get any sleep, making the fact that she wakes up feeling relatively good all the more surprising. She stretches and rolls onto her back, letting her arms fall out to her sides and just about going through the side of the tent when she hits something solid.

Adam is sitting beside her, an eyebrow raised in slight amusement at her reaction.

"We gotta talk about you creeping on me while I'm sleeping."

She grumbles and his face twists into a frown.

"Excuse me?"

She waves a hand over his body, gesturing to the entirety of him.

“This, watching me sleep thing has to stop.”

“I was waiting for you to wake up.”

“Because?”

“Because I wish to speak with you.”

She pulls a face and turns to face him properly. She’s still not quite used to how straight forward and humourless he is after all this time, she’s not exactly sure how to speak with him.

“Okay. Speak.”

She chuckles to herself, realising that she’s talking to him as though he’s a dog. He just watches her in confusion, not understanding her laughter. Typical.

“Have you made a decision?”

A sigh cuts her laughter off and she rubs at her eyes before running her fingers through her hair.

“Dude, I just woke up.”

“That does not answer my question.”

Apparently he’s not in a joking or friendly mood this morning. Maybe even less so than usual.

“I made my decision last night. So, yes.”

“You are certain?”

“Very.”

Now he sighs, his gaze dropping from hers to stare down at the floor of the tent. Felix’s laughter bursts the tense silence of the tent from outside, and she’s surprised when Adam glances nervously at the door of the tent. She’s never seen him looking so… scared.

“Why don’t you want to do this?”

She asks him suddenly, and he looks back up at her with a frown.

“It’s dangerous.”

“I know you don’t like me, but this could help. Felix needs help.”

She ignores his half assed response and continues pressing him for a real answer.

“I do- my hesitance does not come down to whether or not I like you.”

“So what then?”

He doesn’t seem to want to answer and he returns to avoiding her gaze again, so she shifts closer to him, her knees almost touching his legs to make him look back up at her.

“It has been a long while since I’ve done, _that._ I am not entirely certain that I will be able to stop when necessary.”

He finally admits, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.

“I am. I’m sure that out of everyone I can trust you the most not to go too far.”

“Perhaps Nate-”

“No. You.”

She pauses and gives him a small grin.

“You know what they say about the quiet ones. Nate’s probably the most likely to go feral and kill me.”

“I can hear you, Detective.”

Nate’s voice floats through from outside and Jordan laughs. For a moment she thinks that she can see a tiny smirk on Adam’s face as she gives him a small shrug, but as usual it’s gone as quickly as it had appeared.

She shifts closer again, eyeing his hands resting on his knees for a moment before tentatively placing hers over them. He surprises her by remaining where he is, though he does tense up noticeably at the contact.

“If this needs to happen, then I want it to be you.”

“We do not know if it needs to happen.”

“I think we need to at least try.”

His eyes study hers for a long while before he snaps out of whatever trance she’s somehow put him in and abruptly pulls his hands away from hers, moving back until he’s just about on the other side of the tent.

“Very well.”

He’s back to his normal self - stoic as ever.

“Ensure that you have eaten and are adequately hydrated. It will cause you more pain than necessary if your blood is of thicker consistency.”

_More pain than necessary._

Considering what she’s just practically badgered him into, that’s a terrifying statement if she ever heard one.

\--

The mood in the camp is a strangely sombre one this morning, and Nate can’t seem to drag his eyes away from Adam and Jordan as she eats her breakfast. Adam is hovering around her, reminding her far more often than is needed to drink some water. He feels for the both of them. He knows that Jordan has researched what she’s agreed to, but he knows that knowing the facts is infinitely different to actually experiencing it. He wonders if she has an idea of how much pain she will be in for a moment, or if she’s prepared for the effect that it will potentially have on hers and Adam’s relationship.

He understands the logic behind having Adam do this, he is indeed the most likely to be able to pull himself back if it all gets to be too much, and it makes sense that if they are to have one of them able to assist Felix it should be Adam. But he wonders how wise of a plan it is if they take into account the feelings that already exist between the two of them, however much neither of them want to admit to them.

He watches as Adam speaks quietly to her, only for her to roll her eyes and frown at him before getting to her feet and walking away from him, and Nate steps to the side to stand in front of her and prevent her from walking past him.

“Are you alright, Jordan?”

“I would be if I didn’t feel as though I was walking the green mile.”

She snaps back at him before sighing and muttering an apology.

“It’s quite alright. This is going to be… significant. For both of you.”

He chooses his words carefully, not wanting to scare her off but at the same time wanting her to understand the weight of her decision and what she’s asking of Adam.

“So I’ve been told.”

He glances over at Adam, who is still watching her with a frown on his face.

“Perhaps you should try to go easy on him. He has good reason to be concerned.”

Her scowl fades and she looks over her shoulder just as Adam turns away from them.

“I know.”

She says quietly before looking back at Nate.

“It’s going to hurt, right?”

“Yes. At first.”

She nods and gives him a small smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. There is no point in lying to her, not when he knows that she knows the answer anyway.

“Thanks, Nate.”

She walks away before he can say anymore, turning and heading back towards Adam.

\--

“So we doing this or what?”

Mason asks impatiently, leaning back against a tree and lighting up a cigarette, his gaze shifting between Adam and Jordan who couldn’t be standing any further apart if they tried.

“Mason.”

Nate warns. They’re all on edge despite Adam and Jordan being the only two directly involved. It’s been a long, _long_ while since any of them have done this, perhaps the longest of all for Adam who is back to his usual self, standing up straight with his hands clasped behind his back.

He hopes that none of the others notice that his hands are clasped so tightly together in an attempt to stop them from shaking. He hopes that none of them notice the near panic in his eyes as he stares at Jordan. He hopes that none of them can see what he sees looking at her: a combination of fear and intrigue.

It seems that they’ve been standing opposite each other for hours, but it’s probably only been a couple of minutes, before Jordan finally gets the hint that Adam is not going to instigate this and moves to stand closer to him, looking up at him and giving him a small smile.

“Let's do it, I guess.”

"Are you sure about this?"

He asks as he steps closer, and she nods and sweeps her hair to one side as she tilts her head.

"Just don’t suck me dry, okay?"

She tries to joke, but her smile is strained and he can’t even acknowledge what she’s said properly, the weight of it bearing down on him and almost making him change his mind. He just shakes his head as she takes a small step closer to him and reaches up to rest a hand on the back of his head, guiding him down closer to her neck.

"Just do it."

He's so close he can hear her heartbeat as though someone's banging a drum right beside his ear, but it's not racing or pounding as he thought it'd be. It's slow and calming and gentle. He absentmindedly licks his lips as he watches her jugular pulsing in time with it for a moment.

When his gaze meets hers again his pupils are blown to the point his eyes are black, and she offers a smile before giving him a short nod. How strange that despite what he's about to do, _she_ is the one who seems to be seeking to reassure _him._

His awareness of Mason, Nate and Felix standing close by fades away and all that's left is Jordan. The sweet smell of her blood, the comforting thump of her heart, and her eyes fixed on him expectantly is all he can focus on as a low and quiet, yet distinctly animalistic growl sounds at the very back of his throat and he grips a handful of her hair, forcing her head further to the side.

Her hand drops from his head and she gasps as he sinks his fangs into her soft flesh. Her arms wrap around him to keep herself upright and her fingernails dig into his back, hard enough that he feels it even through the thick wool of his coat.

His eyes roll back and then closed, one arm winding tightly around her waist to hold her weight and the other still holding her head to the side as he starts sucking, and _God,_ it's even better than he ever thought it would be.

He can barely acknowledge the taste of her in his mouth before he's consumed by the feel of her rushing through his entire body. He'd forgotten what this was like… or perhaps it had never been like this before. She warms him, limb by limb, while simultaneously sending chills up and down his spine until he can't help but to shiver and tighten his grip on her.

He hears her shallow breathing as her hands grasp and claw at his back, but then she takes a deep breath and lets herself go limp in his arms, trusting him to hold her up and letting her head loll back into his hand. She whimpers softly as his teeth dig deeper into her and his hand curls into a fist against her back as he tries to keep from completely losing himself to her.

He's always thought she was… small. Tiny and fragile, but now he feels her strength coursing through him and it renders him in awe of her. She brings to the front of his mind every awful thing from his past, and in an instant she washes away the agony behind each memory. She shines a spotlight on each of his strengths, and eases the shame he feels over his weaknesses.

It's too much, and at the same time now that he's tasted her he never wants to stop. It feels as though she's a part of him now, like she's filtered into every crack of his mind and filled every blank void left behind by things he doesn't want to remember, and he already mourns for the loss of her just at the knowledge that he needs to release her. His head spins, the most confused and out of control and yet complete he's felt in centuries.

In a few short minutes she breaks him, totally and completely until he's vulnerable and raw, nothing but _her_ taking over every one of his senses. And in the same short span of time she puts him back together, carefully rebuilding him into someone that he's not sure he even recognises anymore, and he hears a quiet moan when he finally pulls his mouth off of her. It takes a moment for him to realise that it came from his own mouth.

They're both panting slightly, his face still nestled into the crook of her neck as he holds onto her, finding himself surprisingly unwilling to loosen his grip. She allows him to stay as he is, leaning over her and bending her backwards, his arm pressing her hard against him. He feels her hand move back up to the back of his head, her fingertips slowly running through his hair, and he doesn't even notice when his lips begin moving over her neck again. Softly this time, no teeth, just soft kisses over the two small puncture marks and up towards her jaw.

He relishes the feeling of her shivering and the way her skin prickles with goosebumps under his touch. His lips travel along her jaw, and it isn't until she turns her head and they press against hers that his eyes snap open. He straightens up and holds her away from him, staring at her in shock.

She blinks back at him, looking just as confused as he feels and after a moment her hand moves up to trace her fingers lightly over the puncture marks.

"Are you alright?"

His voice cracks as he speaks, he barely recognises it as his own and her face twists into a frown, shaking her head slightly.

"I need to sit down."

She murmurs quietly, and Felix rushes for his backpack, setting it down behind her and helping her to sit down on it.

It takes Adam a while to snap out of it and when he does Jordan is still staring up at him with an unreadable expression on her face. He is aware of Nate and Felix fussing over her, Nate has his fingers pressed to her wrist and is checking her pulse while Felix has himself squashed onto the backpack beside her, an arm around her waist and talking to her quietly. He can't make out what he's saying, the sound of blood rushing in his ears is blocking everything out. Jordan doesn't seem to be paying much attention either, her focus still on Adam.

A hand landing roughly on his shoulder makes him jerk his attention away from Jordan to see Mason looking at him questioningly. It's a moment before Adam realises he's asked him a question.

"What?"

"I asked if you're good. You've been spaced out for a few minutes."

"No, I'm- yes, I'm fine."

He hopes the answer sounds convincing because truthfully he doesn't know if he's good. He can feel the effects of her blood, yes. Every one of his senses has been kicked into overdrive and he feels what he can only describe as something like adrenaline coursing through him. But more than that, he can still feel _her,_ and that's the part he hadn't been expecting. He swears that he can still feel her pressed against him, still taste her blood in his mouth, still feel the way it was as though she'd crawled inside of him and left some of herself behind.

Mason frowns at him but doesn't push the topic any further and Adam takes a few steps closer to Jordan.

"Is she alright?"

He asks as Nate takes his hand off of her wrist and then nods with a small smile.

"Nothing to worry about."

"You did good, kid."

Felix adds with a grin, ignoring Adam's scowl and patting him on the shoulder before he and Nate leave him alone with Jordan. She's still watching him, her eyes following his face as he squats down in front of her. His hands come to rest on her knees, just for a second, without him even realising it but before he can pull them away she rests hers on top of them.

He tenses and his fingers twitch but he forces himself to relax. After what he's just done to her he supposes she needs and deserves that little bit of reassurance that he's not going to hurt her.

"Are you alright, Jordan?"

He asks softly, and his use of her first name seems to snap her out of whatever zone she's found herself in and she blinks at him.

"That wasn't like I thought it would be."

She states rather than answers, and he has to admit - even if just to himself - that he feels the same way.

"What were you expecting?"

"Something… rougher."

Well. That's certainly not the answer he thought she was going to give him. She shakes her head and finally looks away from him, finally moves her hands so that he can move his though he stays where he is, his elbows resting on his knees. She lifts her fingers to her neck again, pushing two of them against the small wounds.

"You…"

She trails off and a strange sort of recognition dawns on her face before she speaks again.

"I kind of just want to hug you."

Again, not the statement he was expecting. He stands back up and frowns at her, but even he can tell it's not as convincing a frown as he usually gives.

"Why?"

"I felt-"

She pauses and seems to drift away into her own thoughts again for a moment, her hand slowly sliding down her neck until she clasps it together with her other in her lap.

"-sadness."

She finishes, looking back up at him. He shifts uncomfortably, only a little but he knows she sees it.

"Sadness?"

"And something else."

"A feeding- it can have strange effects on humans."

He tries to explain, though he doesn't entirely believe it himself. It's not exactly a lie, but he knows this had been more than that. He can't ever remember a human taking over him like that before, can't ever remember a human leaving some of themselves behind like it feels that she has. He's never been so reluctant to physically distance himself from a human he's fed from the way he can't bring himself to leave her be just yet.

He just didn't expect for her to experience anything even remotely similar.

Still, she nods and smiles, going along with his story for both their sakes. He gives a short nod in return and despite the pain tugging at his gut that it causes, he turns to walk away from her.

"Wait!"

She calls almost desperately and he spins back around to face her again.

"Can we just stay here for a bit, just you and me?"

 _No._ He can't let this bizarre attachment he suddenly feels with her take over and he can't let the lingering effects of what they just did get in the way of _why_ they did it in the first place.

"I need to speak with the others regarding how tonight will play out. I apologise."

He forces himself to turn away from her before he can see her face fall, pulling a face against the sour taste his dismissal of her left in his mouth.

For once Adam's grateful when he hears Felix and Jordan start talking in low voices behind him, at least she will not be left completely on her own.

Felix can be there for her in ways that Adam cannot, _will not._ No matter how much it aches, how much his muscles are already burning with the effort it takes not to go back to her, he cannot let himself lose sight of their mission. He will not allow his emotions, whatever they may be, get in the way of the job he's here to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


	11. Chapter 11

If things had been awkward with Adam before, now they were disastrous and Jordan found herself wishing for the first time since meeting Unit Bravo - including the time she’d been captured by Murphy - that she’d never met them. 

He wasn’t exactly making things pleasant for her since their  _ moment,  _ as she was convinced that it was the moment after the feeding rather than the feeding itself that had made him so distant. He’d kissed her neck, both of them apparently so distracted by what had just happened to realise that it was happening until his lips had made contact with hers, snapping them both out of it.

She has no way of knowing what it was like for him, because he refuses to speak to her, but she knows that she felt more than she was expecting to. She’d been prepared for the physical pain, prepared for the feeling of helplessness that had washed over her before she sternly reminded herself that she trusted that Adam wouldn’t hurt her. She hadn’t been prepared to find herself close to tears over the emotional pain she felt. Not  _ her  _ pain, but it might as well have been for how hard it had hit her.

He had unknowingly left some of his sadness behind in her and it breaks her heart. She doesn’t know what memories are causing the sadness that she feels, but she knows it’s deep and destructive and she can already feel it festering away inside of her. She can only imagine how bad it is for Adam to live with the full brunt of this, day in and day out.

She glances up as Felix comes and sits beside her on the edge of the stump she’d sat on with Adam the other day. He’s grinning at her, but she can see the concern in his eyes as plain as day.

“How you goin’ trooper?”

He slings an arm over her shoulders as he asks, his fingers rubbing at her bicep lightly and she can tell that he’s subtly trying to put her at ease.

“Trooper?”

“Yeah, because you're handling everything like a champ. We all kinda thought you’d be a bit of a basket case after, you know.”

“Who says I’m not?”

He jerks a thumb towards himself and his grin widens, his arm dropping from around her shoulders.

“Me. Haven’t you heard that I’m the most perceptive one here?”

“It’s been mentioned, yes.”

She laughs lightly, going along with his attempts to cheer her up.

“How are you really, though?”

“I’m okay.”

The answer falls from her lips almost as though she were on autopilot, and she’s not sure if it’s the truth. She’s confused about the bizarre connection that seemed to have been forged between her and Adam without even of them expecting it, confused about the brief kiss, angry that he won’t speak to her, and absolutely clueless about what to do with these feelings of sadness that have been forced upon her.

“I’m not okay. I feel… lost.”

She admits after a moment of silence, Felix apparently not believing her first answer anyway and staying quiet as he waits for her to say more. She looks back up at him and he’s watching her carefully, a hint of a smile still on his face but now it’s pretty much overshadowed by the worry creasing his brow.

“Lost?”

“I have all this,  _ stuff  _ now. I don’t know what to do with it.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Feelings.  _ His  _ feelings.”

The smile fades completely and Felix frowns at her.

“Adam’s feelings?”

“I think? I don’t know. While he was… it was like being in his head. I don’t know where any of it came from but I could feel  _ everything,  _ and some of it’s still in here.”

She presses a hand to her chest, then lets out a heavy sigh and looks down at the ground. She knows she’s not making any sense, but how is she supposed to explain this?

“That’s pretty rare.”

Felix admits after a moment, and she looks up at him in surprise. Not the response she’d been expecting. He shifts to the side to face her properly, casting a quick look around them as though he’s not sure if he should be telling her what he’s about to tell her.

“I expected this from Adam. Doing that, it would’ve been like it tapped him straight into your, what’s the word? Consciousness? It fades off after a while, but it’s rare for a human to experience the same thing at all.”

“Is it because of my blood?”

Felix pulls an uncertain face, moving his hand in a so-so motion in front of him.

“Maybe. Doubt it, though. You don’t get in unless we want you to.”

“What does that mean?”

Suddenly his face changes into an uncomfortable expression, almost guilty, as though realising that he’s said too much.

“You should be talking to Adam about this, sorry.”

He gets to his feet abruptly and gives her an apologetic smile.

“No, wait. Are you saying he let me in on purpose?”

He’s already backing away from her.

“I, um. I can’t really answer this stuff. You really need to talk to him.”

He turns and all but runs off, and she stares after him with a frown on her face.  _ What the fuck?  _ She looks around the camp, seeing Adam as far away from her as he can possibly get without disappearing completely into the woods. Like he has been all afternoon. Letting out a heavy sigh she hauls herself to her feet and trudges over to him, more determined than ever now to find out what the hell is going on with her.

\--

Adam can hear her footsteps before he even bothers to turn and see her coming towards him. That, and he’s been hyper focused on her heart beat and her scent since he had her in his arms and it’s starting to get on his nerves.

Why had he agreed to this? And more importantly, what had possessed him to kiss her once it was over? That’s all it is, this feeling of her crawling through his veins that  _ refuses  _ to leave him alone. It’s all because he lingered for too long, held her for too long, kept his mouth on her for too long, then allowed her lips to come into contact with his.

He knows it’s more than that, deep down. More than regret and shock and dwelling over one brief moment. He can still feel her because she’s still right there, under his skin. He pretends that he can only sense her presence moving towards him because of her blood, all of his senses are heightened so it makes sense that he can feel the shift in the air when she stands up all that distance away. He knows it’s not the entire reason, but he’s never been so determined to pretend that he can sense less than he actually can.

“Can we talk?”

He sucks in a deep breath, closing his eyes as he holds it for a moment before exhaling slowly, preparing himself to turn and face her. She’s quieter than usual, her voice sounds uncertain. Almost scared. He spins to face her, aviators covering his eyes as he gives her a once over.

“Of course.”

She looks to the side where Nate is standing not far away then turns back towards him, but she’s not looking at him. She’s looking at the ground in front of him and he clenches his jaw to keep his composure as his heart sinks. This is what they are now. She’s afraid of him. She’s realised that he is the monster that she always insisted she didn’t see him as and she doesn’t want to be alone with him.

“In private?”

_ Oh.  _ Well, that’s unexpected. He gives a stiff nod and follows her when she turns and heads back towards the tent, hesitating when she drops to her knees and crawls inside but then going in after her a few seconds later.

“Something on your mind?”

He’s grateful his voice isn’t shaking as much as his inner thoughts seem to be as he sits as far away from her as possible.

“You’re on my mind.”

Usually he’s impressed by the way she doesn’t beat around the bush, she’s always straight to the point. Right now though, he could use a little beating. He suppresses a groan at the thought, he can practically hear Mason’s crude response in his head when it enters his mind.

“Oh?”

“Literally. Like you’ve deposited a mini Adam inside of my head and he’s set up shop in there and he's drip feeding me your emotions.”

_ Oh.  _

Well, this is a complication. It was bad enough that even when he thought it was one sided he was having trouble shaking the connection. It’s an entirely different matter if she feels it as well. She’d told him that she felt sadness and something else, but he’d brushed it off as temporary insanity. Brief madness in the form of her rambling about nonsense. If she still remembers and feels those things though…

But he didn’t let her in. He can’t have. He  _ wouldn’t  _ have. Except that it seems very much like he did, the way she’s looking at him like she’s finally really seeing him after all this time. He should be happy about it, really. He'd spent decades and then some wishing for someone to look at him the way Jordan is right now before he gave up, assuming that he would never again find it.

But now that he has, and she is, he doesn’t want it. Because now he remembers that people really seeing him and him letting people in never ends well, and he will not be responsible for something happening to Jordan. He’d already considered letting his guard down with her, and she’d been kidnapped by Murphy. He needs to explain her side effects away effectively enough that she’ll push them away all on her own. She will stop seeing him if she decides that he isn’t worth seeing.

“Care to explain?”

She prods once she decides that he’s been silent for too long, and he sighs in annoyance.

“How am I to explain to you why  _ your  _ mind is doing the things it is doing?”

“I mean, you kind of had a part in it.”

“You were insistent on one of us feeding, Detective. You were insistent on  _ me  _ feeding, and you told me that you’d researched. Surely somewhere in your research you came across material advising you that humans may experience temporary bouts of mental instability for a short period thereafter?”

Instantly he knows that he’s said the wrong thing, and he’s fairly certain he doesn’t need any kind of special connection to her for it to be obvious. She no longer appears afraid or nervous. Now she’s livid, glaring at him with her hands balled into fists by her sides.

“Du Mortain, you did  _ not  _ just call me crazy.”

“Correct, I did not. It is not my intention to start an argument with you."

He sighs out but her glare doesn't fade and he takes a long breath, willing himself the strength to deal with the mood she's apparently in.

"You know what, forget it. I thought we could have a civilised conversation about it but if you’re just gonna dismiss everything I say as being  _ crazy  _ then I'm not doing this with you right now."

“Detective Mills-”

A noisy sigh cuts him off and her glare deepens, if that were possible.

“I thought we had more of an understanding now.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because I have more of an understanding of you. I thought it was mutual, but apparently not.”

He stares at her in uncertainty for a moment as she pauses, watching him and waiting for a response. A part of him wants to tell her it is mutual, spilling his guts and telling her that he feels infinitely closer to her already and that he’s only growing more connected to her every minute that she is near to him.

The other part, the rational, hardened and professional part of him knows that nothing good would come of such a confession. Best case it would make her pity him. It would make her realise that the feelings she experienced from him are true, and he would be forever weakened in her eyes. Worst case, she would mistake it as a chance - however slight - for them to become even closer. For them to someday become more than mere teammates. He knows how humans' thought processes work, full of hope however false. Clinging onto whatever outrageous idea that they find appealing and holding on tight. She would imagine that there is some kind of a future for them, and he knows how persistent and relentless she is once she decides that she wants something.

No, telling her anything now would be disastrous for Unit Bravo. The awkwardness that would settle between him and Jordan would tear them apart, not to mention Mason. 

_ Mason.  _ He had been completely forgetting Mason’s relationship with her in the midst of everything that had happened between them today, and guilt tugs at his gut hard enough to make him feel ill.

He might not approve of their casual relationship, and while it is unlikely that Mason actually feels anything for Jordan, the miniscule possibility that he might has Adam despising the feelings for her that have been slowly creeping up on him. Creeping so slowly that he didn’t even realise they were there until today when he had her in his arms. The thought of betraying one of his closest friends in such a way makes the decision for him and he gives a short nod.

“It would seem not. Whatever connection you feel you have with me will fade by the end of the day and tomorrow you will be grateful that I have not allowed you to act on it.”

He ignores the hurt that flashes in her eyes, looking away from her and staring past her at a random spot on the side of the tent.

“You’re an asshole.”

She mutters before crawling back out of the tent and trudging away, shoulders slumped and head hanging. He did that. He hurt her before he was even in a real position to hurt her properly. Yet he still managed it. And  _ that  _ is why there could never be anything between them. That is why he must shove these new - or perhaps not so new - feelings as far down as he can until they are forgotten like so many others.

\--

She doesn't speak to Adam again for the rest of the day, and he can't tell whether he's happy about it or not. He is, he decides. He has to be. Because he doesn't know if he can handle causing the depth of hurt that he'd seen in her eyes earlier today.

He and Nate are standing either side of the entrance to the tent while Jordan sleeps inside. There'd been no playful banter coming from within tonight, there'd been only silence, she hadn't even returned the disconnected "goodnight Detective" that he'd muttered as she'd made her way past him into the tent.

His thoughts are quickly turned away from how she is acting towards him when he hears Felix yell for him. It's the moment of truth. The moment they find out whether feeding from Jordan was worth it.

"Adam, over here!"

He casts a quick glance in Nate's direction before running in Felix's direction, the look on his friend's face matching his own. If this hasn't worked, then all the awkwardness now between him and Jordan, all the pain he'd unknowingly caused her, it was all for nothing and they're out of ideas.

"What is it?"

He asks as he stops beside Felix, who almost excitedly points in the direction of the forest. Adam can tell he's happy to potentially have someone able to help him with this enemy, but his heart sinks when he looks in the direction he's pointing and sees nothing but trees.

He takes a few steps forward, already knowing it's useless but hoping all the same that he's just somehow missed Erlking to the darkness.

"You were right in front of him. He took off."

Felix speaks up forlornly behind him, a heavy sigh accompanying his words. Adam spins to face him, offering a sympathetic frown.

"I am sorry, Felix. I saw nothing."

He feels badly for Felix it’s true, but his heart sinks even further when he imagines the reaction Jordan will have in the morning when she discovers that what they’d done was useless. Felix forces a strained smile back to his face and makes an attempt at a careless shrug.

“Hey on the bright side, we got to him before Jordan got up this time.”

He points out and Adam gives a stiff nod, his fists clenching at his sides as his disappointment gives way to anger and frustration. He turns back around and marches back to camp, coming to stand beside Nate at the tent.

“Did it work?”

Nate asks hesitantly, undoubtedly already knowing the answer just by the look on Adam’s face. He shakes his head, not trusting himself to say the words out loud lest he lose control of his emotions and say something foolish. Thankfully, Nate seems to know better than to say anything more, he just lets out a heavy sigh and walks a few steps away to leave Adam in peace.

\--

Felix watches Adam go, the forced smile fading from his face before he turns back to the woods. He glances around quickly before jogging just beyond where the woods begin to grow thicker beyond the clearing they’ve made camp in.

“I know you’re still here.”   


He calls, surprising himself with the annoyance he hears in his own voice. Sure enough he hears a twig breaking to his right and he whirls around to see a short and surprisingly frail looking figure walking towards him. He takes a nervous step backwards and a light chuckle sounds from within the black cloak.

“You need not fear me, vampire. I have no use for you.”

“Why couldn’t he see you?”

“The human’s blood made him stronger, yes. But it cannot make him see what is not meant for his eyes.”

Felix huffs out a frustrated sigh and turns away to head back towards camp.

“It will be over soon, Tai.”

Erlking calls after him and Felix stops dead mid-step, looking over his shoulder.

“What did you call me?”

Pale hands reach up to remove the hood from Erlking’s head and he gives him a sympathetic smile.

“That is your name, is it not?”

“Not anymore.”

Erlking hums thoughtfully before slinking backwards into the black of the forest and disappearing again and Felix frowns to himself before trudging back to camp, surprised to see Adam standing just beyond the tree line, looking uncharacteristically confused.

“I heard that. From the tent.”

He says simply, and Felix’s eyes widen.

“You did?”

“He called you Tai, correct?”

Felix nods, a smile returning to his face and resisting the urge to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet in excitement. So maybe the feeding hadn’t worked in the way they had hoped. Maybe Adam still can’t see Erlking. But he can  _ hear  _ him, which is better than anything they had before. Maybe they have a chance at catching this thing after all.


	12. Chapter 12

"So you're telling me it was for nothing?"

Jordan asks incredulously, her eyes darting between the four of them as though she doesn't know where to look. 

"I can hear him."

"And what? Felix is gonna be your guide dog or something?"

"Hey!"

She shoots Felix a sympathetic smile at his objection but it fades quickly as she groans and runs a hand over her face.

"Well that's just fantastic."

She mutters before turning on her heel and disappearing back into the tent. That was absolutely  _ not  _ the news she was hoping to wake up to today. After the disaster of yesterday, she'd hoped that this morning would bring with it the news that Erlking had been captured and they could go home.

She flops backwards onto the uncomfortably thin foam mattress that's been her bed for the last week with a heavy sigh. She's tired of this stupid forest, tired of not knowing what's going to happen after she goes to sleep. But most of all she wants to get away from Adam.

He was wrong yesterday. She still feels him in her mind, in her chest,  _ everywhere,  _ and she doesn't want it. She'd already been starting to suspect that she had feelings for him and was trying to work through and deal with them, without his own being forced on her. There's something else hidden behind the sadness he'd left in her, something deep and forbidden and strong enough to keep relentlessly returning to the forefront of her mind no matter how hard she tries to ignore it. As though he'd unknowingly been trying to tell her without having to say the words out loud.

She knows that he feels something for her. What he'd left behind synchronises perfectly with what she feels for him, though she still can't quite put her finger on what it is. It's not love - it can't be. She couldn't possibly love somebody so closed off towards her. Longing perhaps? And wonder. It makes her desperately wish that he'd let his guard down a little and let her know him properly, beyond the stoic soldier image that he projects constantly.

His behaviour towards her since the day before makes her question it though, she has to be mistaken. How can he feel something so deeply for her and be able to act so indifferent towards her? More than indifferent. He's acting as though he  _ despises  _ her and it's left her more confused and mad at him than she's ever been.

Her attention is drawn to the entrance of the tent as it opens and she involuntarily holds her breath until she sees that it's Mason crawling in to join her. Good. A distraction. If anyone can get her mind off of Adam and wipe away whatever feelings she may or may not have for him, it's Mason.

He doesn’t say anything as he lays down beside her, just staring up at nothing in silence. There’s a strange, awkward tension between them and she doesn’t know where it’s come from but she knows that she hates it. She can’t handle a weird vibe being between her and Adam  _ and  _ between her and Mason. She can’t do anything about Adam, so she does the only thing she can think of to fix the weirdness between her and Mason.

Without saying anything she props herself up onto one elbow and leans over to kiss him, his hand moving to her waist and roughly dragging her over on top of him automatically as he returns the kiss. She shifts her knees to either side of his hips to straddle him, her hands splayed out on his chest as she tilts her head to kiss him a little harder, almost desperately. He groans at the forcefulness of her kiss and his fingers begin to creep under her shirt before he freezes, and she pulls back to look at him questioningly.

“What’s wrong?”

He frowns and gives a slight shake of his head.

“Nothing.”

He murmurs, leaning up to catch her lips with his again and sliding his tongue into her mouth. She sighs softly, out of relief more than anything, and grinds her hips down against him. It’s working, and she’s slowly forgetting about Adam, choosing to deliberately ignore the part of her mind that’s telling her this is a mistake, that she’s about to screw things up beyond repair.

Mason pulls back again suddenly, his hands abruptly pulling out of her shirt and moving to her shoulders to stop her from leaning down to kiss him again.

“We can’t do this anymore.”

He mutters and she sits up, her hands falling to her sides as she frowns down at him.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

It doesn’t look like he’s going to explain any further, though she has a feeling that she knows exactly what’s come over him.

“Fine.”

She huffs, hauling herself off of him and landing heavily beside him again, arms crossed over her chest as she glares up at the roof of the tent.

“Don’t be a drama queen.”

He snaps at her, and she twists her head to the side to shift her glare to him. She’s well aware that she’s being dramatic but he doesn’t need to point it out.

“I want to go home.”

She murmurs after a moment, her glare finally fading as she looks away from him again.

“I didn’t realise me refusing to fuck you would get to you so much.”

She rolls her eyes at his comment but doesn’t bother to look back over at him.

“Get over yourself, it’s not just you.”

“I know. It’s Adam.”

He replies and now she does look over at him, half surprised and half pissed off that he’s called her out again.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He sits up and gestures to her neck and she absentmindedly lifts a hand to touch the tiny wounds Adam left there the day before.

“I don’t know what went on between you two when he did that. I have a pretty good idea but I don’t know for sure, but there’s something going on there and I’m not gonna get in the way of that.”

“There’s nothing going on there.”

She objects, knowing it’s not true even as she says it. He just raises an eyebrow at her in disbelief before looking away from her again with a slight shake of his head.

“There’s  _ something  _ and I’m not gonna stand in the way.”

“No need, he’s getting in the way enough for the both of you.”

“You should talk to him.”

“I did talk to him. He thinks I’m nuts.”

He smirks and side-eyes her before pulling a cigarette from his pack.

“He’s not wrong.”

“Fuck you.”

His smirk spreads into a grin and he flips her off before making to leave the tent, but he pauses halfway out and glances back over at her.

“Be patient with him. And don’t fuck it up.”

He tells her, a surprising amount of concern softening his words and she frowns up at the roof.

“Maybe you should tell him that.”

She mutters stubbornly and she can just about hear his eyes rolling as he leaves her alone again. Well so much for her plan of using Mason to distract her from Adam. She can’t ignore the tiny glimmer of hope that Mason had sparked in her though. If he can see that there’s something there - as he had put it - then maybe she’s not as wrong about Adam as she thought she was.

\--

Mason has a feeling that speaking to Adam about Jordan isn’t going to end well. He’s just as worried that it’s going to be less of Adam being angry about his personal life being interfered with and more of an ‘I told you so’ about his and Jordan’s relationship coming to a messy end and making things awkward within the unit.

Not that it’s a particularly messy ending, it’s not as though there were ever any real feelings there and he can’t foresee that there will be any difficulties in them continuing to work together as they always have. But he knows Adam well enough to know that he will insist on the problem being between Mason and Jordan rather than Mason calling it off for Adam’s sake.

“Can I talk to you?”

He forces out as he steps up beside Adam, glancing over his shoulder quickly to make sure Jordan hasn’t come out of the tent and spotted him beelining for Adam, who just nods and turns to face Mason properly. He’s already not in the best mood, Mason can tell. Between taking so long to make any real headway on this mission and whatever’s going on between him and Jordan he knows that it would all be weighing heavily on him and he’s probably going to be even more short tempered than usual.

On top of everything else, Mason might have been playing it off as not a big deal so far but he knows that what he did yesterday can’t have been easy for Adam. Not with Jordan’s blood being as strong and as tempting as it is. He’s not sure that he would’ve been able to pull back if it were him that had done it instead and he’s grateful that at least Jordan had recognised that Adam was the best choice.

Adam’s watching him expectantly, waiting for him to say something, and he realises that he’s a little nervous and unsure how to begin what he wants to say. He doesn’t particularly care whether or not Adam and Jordan sort their shit out and end up together, but he does care about this unresolved whatever it is between them causing a slow but steady rift to open up within the team. And, he supposes he kind of cares about Jordan growing tired of it all and giving up, asking for a transfer or quitting completely. She’s been around for so long now it feels like she’s actually one of them, and Mason guesses it would kind of suck for her to not be around at all anymore.

“Yesterday-”

He barely starts his sentence before Adam is holding a hand up to silence him. A withered and pained expression crosses his face and Mason frowns at the sight of it, not having ever seen Adam looking so lost before.

“I would prefer not to discuss the events of yesterday.”

He says shortly, turning away from him again.

“Trust me, so would I but I think something needs to be said.”

“Nothing that has not already been said.”

“You know you-  _ we  _ could lose her over this, right?”

He tries, appealing to Adam’s desire to retain control over everything and keep them all working together efficiently. It seems to work, though Adam doesn’t seem to want to let him know that, but he sees his eyes shift sideways towards him for a split second before he removes his sunglasses from where they hang off the front of his coat and slides them over his eyes.

“I think you’re being a touch dramatic.”

“I think you’re being a touch naïve.”

He counters without thinking, and finally Adam turns to face him again.

“Excuse me, Agent?”

He’s not used to going up against Adam like this, and it’s happened far too many times than he’s comfortable with on this mission already, the last thing he wants to start another argument with him. Over a girl, no less. A  _ human  _ girl.

“I’m just saying. I don’t know if you did it deliberately or not, but you let her in yesterday and it’s messing with her.”

“I most certainly did not.”

Mason raises an eyebrow, knowing that Adam knows better than to question Mason’s ability to sense a struggle going on within a human.

“Like I said, maybe it wasn’t deliberate but you did and you need to deal with that because she’s starting to lose it.”

“You have spoken to her?”

“Yeah.”

“Today?”

“Just now, yeah.”

“And she still… I thought it would have faded by now.”

Adam groans, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose for a moment. Mason almost feels bad for him, but he knows there’s nothing he can do. This mess was started between Adam and Jordan, and so it’s up to Adam and Jordan to sort it out and get themselves back on track, even if only to dispel the hostility and awkwardness which has settled over the camp over the last twenty-four hours.

“Well, it hasn’t.”

He looks back over his shoulder when he hears movement coming from the tent to see Jordan emerging from it, a scowl still on her face when she looks over and sees the two of them talking. She looks as though she wants to march over to them and demand that they stop talking about her, but after staring at them for a long moment she just shakes her head and turns to walk in the other direction, disappearing behind the tent and into the woods.

Mason sighs, realising that he’s not going to get much more out of Adam now that Jordan’s up and about and makes to move back to his usual sentry post, but he pauses and turns back towards Adam once more before he goes.

“I ended it.”

“Ended what?"

“Me and Jordan, it’s done. It won’t be me standing in your way.”

He turns and leaves the team leader alone, knowing that if he sticks around he’s only going to hear Adam’s subtly nervous rambling about how their relationship ending doesn’t affect him in the slightest. He’s ended it with Jordan, he’s let Adam know, his involvement in their situation is over and now it’s all up to them.

\--

Adam watches Mason walk away, a strange combination of annoyance, confusion and optimism bubbling away in his chest. It had been difficult to hide his expression upon learning that Mason and Jordan’s relationship is now over, even if he doesn’t know what kind of expression he would have shown. But the fact that Jordan can still feel him is troubling, and it all but proves that he had in fact let her in the day before. It was most certainly not deliberate, which just confuses him even more. How had it happened without him allowing it?

He knows that Mason’s right and he needs to talk to Jordan. Nothing will ever happen between them, he’s sure of it. She’s a member of his unit now, he is her commanding agent and nothing more, it would be highly inappropriate and somewhat dangerous for anything more to happen between them, but they do need to work out the hostility between them before she does quit or request a transfer, as Mason had suggested. The thought sticks in his mind, an unwelcome thought forcing feelings that he doesn’t want on him. He needs to put an end to it so he reluctantly makes his way over to the tent, to where he’d seen Jordan disappear to once she’d spotted him and Mason talking.

It takes him longer to find her than expected, long enough that he starts to worry that she’s ventured too far into the woods and been taken, but he finally spots her through the trees. She’s standing perfectly still, staring at something that’s blocked to him by the brush around her. He’s about to take another step towards her when he hears different footsteps, though Jordan remains fixed in place and he realises that she’s not alone. He marches hurriedly over to her, shoving foliage out of the way and then stopping just as dead still as she is, staring in shock at what she’s looking at.

It's a boy, he can't be much more than seven or eight years old. Finally Jordan moves, frowning over at Adam before turning her attention back to the boy as he stumbles clumsily on his way as though he doesn’t even notice that the two of them are there.

Adam takes another step towards him, trying to move into a position to see his face but the boy is looking down at the ground, shaggy brown curls hanging over the front of his face and blocking Adam’s view.

"Where is your family, child?"

He either doesn't hear Adam or is refusing to acknowledge him and Jordan jogs over to him before he can disappear any further into the trees.

"Hey, kid."

She rests a hand lightly on his shoulder and the boy stops walking, allowing Jordan to crouch down in front of him. 

"Uh, Adam?"

Unease settles in the pit of Adam’s stomach as he marches over to take a look at the child himself, immediately understanding why Jordan appears so unsettled. Jordan pushes the boy’s hair back out of the way to offer a better view of his face. His eyes are wide open but milky white, black circles framing them against the grey shade of his skin. He’s incredibly skinny, his clothes are hanging off of him, thin arms and legs sticking out from the bottoms of his shorts and sleeves of his shirt and his face is drawn. He looks incredibly malnourished and Adam wonders how he’s even managing to stay on his feet enough to wander the woods as he is.

“I don’t think he can hear us.”

He says quietly, resting a hand on Jordan’s shoulder to get her attention as she keeps trying to talk to the boy. She glances at his hand, then up at his face with a slight scowl, obviously still mad at him despite what’s happening at the moment, but whatever conversation they need to have is going to have to wait until they’ve worked out where this child came from and what is wrong with him.

“What the hell happened to him?”

She asks finally, getting to her feet and grabbing at the boy’s arm gently as he immediately tries to keep walking again once she’s out of his way.

“I don’t know.”

He answers after a moment. He walks in a slow circle around the boy, stopping once he’s behind him and again pushing his hair out of the way to reveal a set of what look to be sharp tooth marks in a perfectly formed circle at the base of the boy’s neck.

“Look at this.”

Jordan leans over the child to inspect the marks herself, her free hand lifting to the side of her neck and Adam feels a flash of guilt as her fingertips drag over the puncture marks in her own skin.

“Vampire?”

She glances up at him, her expression softening slightly when she sees the guilt written all over him before he pulls his face back into line and shakes his head.

“Not in a circle like that. And it’s incredibly difficult to draw blood from that part of the neck.”

He answers, pushing away his thoughts about what he’d done to Jordan so as to deal with what’s presented in front of them right now.

“Erlking? Nate said he normally takes kids, right?”

Adam nods, shifting his gaze back down to the boy and letting his hair fall back down over his neck before gently pushing Jordan’s hand from his arm to take hold of it himself.

“Most likely. Go and get the others, I’ll stay with the boy. Maybe he can lead us to somewhere that will be of use in locating who did this to him.”

Jordan stares at him hesitantly for a moment, her eyes darting nervously to the woods around him before she nods slowly and turns to run back towards the camp, and he can hear her calling for the rest of Unit Bravo as she goes.

He looks back down at the boy sympathetically, still standing still with his head drooped and hands hanging lifelessly by his side. His arm feels tiny in Adam’s grip, as though he could snap it with the slightest squeeze and his skin is icy cold. His struggles are over it would seem, and Adam can only hope that he didn’t suffer too much at the hands of the Erlking, and that with his fate they might be able to locate the creature and bring him to justice.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts, feelings, concerns? Good or bad, you can find me on Tumblr @crackerdumortain and my inbox is always open!


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